Cover Ideas, Tips & Guides

Garden mirrors offer a simple way to create interest and light in the garden. They can create the illusion of more space and add focal points that lead you through the garden. And, with so many types of garden mirror to choose from, you can match the design to your hard landscaping and planting to enhance your garden style.

Eating al fresco is one of the highlights of summer and being able to cook outdoors is an added bonus. Whether that’s having a barbecue, firing up the pizza oven or turning on your gas oven, having a dedicated area for your kitchen has never been easier. There’s a huge range of kitchens to choose from. To keep it simple there are barbecue tables, which can be wheeled out next to your cooking area to make serving easier, or with a full-scale kitchen you can have almost every convenience you’d have indoors, including a fridge.

Mattresses are difficult to replace—they’re heavy, awkward to carry, and expensive. Plus, it’s nearly impossible to find one that matches your preferred balance of fluffiness and firmness: Once you have a good mattress that you like, it makes sense that you’d want to keep it around for as long as possible. Fortunately, there are ways to make your mattress last a long time without breaking the bank or taking away from your beauty sleep.

Floral prints are everywhere this summer, much to interior designers' delight.

With everything you have to do on a daily basis, it's hard to remember when to water your plants, when the last time you watered them was, and how much you need to water each different plant.

What left the fluffy, white deposit on this zinnia stem?

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How to Identify and Prevent Sunscald on Tomatoes

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You may recognize those unsightly raised ridges and bumps all over your lawn as the handiwork ofmoles digging around for their dinners. But some types of tunneling are caused by a different small mammal called a vole. While moles typically make a mess of lawns, voles can be destructive throughout your garden.

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How To Propagate Bird of Paradise Plants

Bacopa is a trailing perennial that is perfect for hanging baskets, containers and providing ground cover at the front of borders. Originally from South Africa, it is grown as an annual in the UK, because it isn’t frost hardy and won’t survive temperatures below 5ºC. It produces a mass of tiny flowers over a long period, from June through to October, in either white, pink or blue.

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Deadheading Petunias: How to Remove Spent Flowers

Shade gardens are some of the most beautiful and rewarding gardens you can create. No one can resist the cool welcome that dappled areas of the landscape offer in the heat of summer. The boisterous flowering in the sunny portions of the garden is wonderful, but when the temps soar and the eyes need relief from the glare of the sun, to the shade garden we go! Many of us, though, only have shade thanks to a covered porch or roofed entry. In these spots, visitors can experience the same cool, lush feeling they might out in the landscape, but it hits them as they enter our homes with shady garden containers. Taking some of the best aspects of a shade garden in the ground and displaying them in pots is a chance to highlight some stars that don’t always get the proper attention. The following suggestions will survive in a pot for years in the PNW and can be replanted into the ground when you are ready for a change.

So you’ve hit the jackpot at the thrift store and found the vintage sofa of your dreams at a deep discount. But then you spot something that could turn this scene into a nightmare—an ugly stain on the fabric that looks at least half as old as the furniture itself. With a bit of patience and the right cleaning technique, there’s an excellent chance you can remove the stain, revive the fabric, and enjoy your “new” furniture for years to come. Below, we're sharing six foolproof ways to remove stains from thrifted store finds.

Planning a home’s private outdoor retreat for relaxation and social gatherings involves more than imagining how it will look. Much like interior redesigns, the focus first must be on functionality, and practical logistics like how the space will be used and how many people it should or could accommodate.

When the warm weather arrives, it signals the opportunity to turn attention to refreshing or reworking outdoor spaces. Here are a few ideas to effect some big or small changes so outdoor living is even more enjoyable this season.

Sometimes, it feels like plants are the only fix humans need for all their woes. Our list of the best privacy plants for windows uplifts your home’s aesthetics, calms your space, and is brilliant at shielding you from nosy and noisy neighbors!

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

I was planning on taking the contents of whatever vase I created to Julie, whose Pilates class I have been attending for 12 years but who is stepping down as of today; however, she is poorly and unable to take the class so I will arrange to see her with a fresh bunch when she is well enough to mix with people again. I shall miss her weekly classes, but have always enjoyed those taken by her replacement, who has covered for illness and holidays and teaches a slightly different style, so all is not lost.

Plants that gracefully twine around a fence or gingerly cascade from a trellis are the stuff of any gardener’s dreams. Alas, your soil is where these dreams wither! Don’t worry; these easy vines that grow in poor soil are all you need to feel good about your gardening chops again!

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The speckled bush-cricket is a small, bright green cricket that gets its name from its all-over covering of black speckles. It has short wings, long, thin antennae and a dark orange stripe on its back (the male has a thicker stripe than the female). The female has a long, curved ovipositor (egg-laying tube). The speckled bush cricket cannot fly, but gets around by jumping, using its powerful back legs.

KATIE CHARLOTTE FIEDLER

When creating a beautiful outdoor space, you often start with an empty space. Expansive backyards, empty decks, and beautiful front porches are easy to fill with plants, lighting, and furniture.

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When you’re in the throes of baking or preparing your morning toast, not much is worse than having to wait for your butter to reach room temperature (except for maybe struggling to spread it when it’s chilled). If you’re constantly forgetting to allow butter to reach its ideal softness (which takes about 30 minutes to an hour), there’s an underrated kitchen staple you may want to look into: the butter crock. A butter crock can keep your butter at the perfect texture for up to a week—without being stored in the fridge.

Companion planting is the centuries-old practice of pairing plants in the garden that benefit one another. Our gardens function as interconnected communities, with different plants providing unique services. Some plants attract beneficial insects, others ward off pests, while some enhance soil health. Anyone who’s grown tomatoes knows they are heavy feeders, and often plagued by foliar diseases and a diversity of insect pests. They certainly stand to benefit from tomato companion plants that promote healthier plants and increased yields.

From built-in wet bars to bar carts, the idea of an at-home bar has taken many forms over the years, with members of each generation putting their own spin on an entertaining-friendly, at-home bar setup. Enter the Gen Z version: the bookcase bar.

Is your patio currently a cluttered mess? It’s time for a makeover that won’t blow your budget. To optimize patio time, you’ll want to create a clean, comfortable spot.    We turned to Heather Knight-Willcock, an interior designer based in Long Beach, California, for her advice on redecorating a patio without dropping a ton of cash. As an expert for ShopGoodwill.com, Knight-Willcock is well-versed in seeking the best deals, and shopping with an eye for budget-friendly and second-hand options.  Here’s how Knight-Willcock would decorate a patio for under $200—and how you can, too. 

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