Bloom: Ice-cream, oysters and garden designs vie for attention

Homeowners pay close attention to how their home looks during the day but many neglect the way it looks after dark. Outdoor and walkway lighting is a wonderful way to increase safety and security around your home but also provides a dramatic boost to your nighttime curb appeal. These DIY concrete and PVC walkway lights will have neighbors slowing down to take a closer look and give your yard a fun and inexpensive glow.

A dusty Nick Stanek stepped off his tractor after an evening of round baling hay.

In permaculture garden design, we often talk about the importance of taking a holistic approach. But if you are unfamiliar with this phrase, then you may question what exactly it means. 

Do you want an unlimited food supply from your garden? Grow these Best Cut and Come Again Vegetables for a Lot of Harvest!

Bloom is the biggest annual event in the Irish gardening calendar featuring show gardens of all sizes, themed floral displays, nursery displays, plant sales and a range of interactive platforms where visitors can get professional advice from a host of gardening experts. Before you go here’s what you need to know, along with some of the highlights of this year’s show.

Jay Sifford freely admits his faults: He wears purple shoes, binge-listens to Cher, and had an epiphany regarding his design career while watching Mary Poppins. For landscape accents, he erects soaring violet and blue glass spears that could easily take down a charging ostrich. Most disturbingly, he loathes garden gnomes. But we forgive him because not only is he thoughtful and original, but he also fashions enticing outdoor spaces with plants, sculptures, and structures that linger in our minds. Headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, Sifford makes the hour-and-a-half drive to his mountain home in West Jefferson as often as possible. He named his sanctuary “Rhodwood” for the massive, 30-foot-tall native rosebay rhododendrons (Rhododendron maximum) that frame the back of the house. Rather than the quotidian log cabin you might expect to see in these parts, the dwelling is a dogtrot house, an architectural style associated with Appalachia in which a central breezeway (ideal for a snoozing hound) separates the kitchen and dining areas from the bedrooms. Sifford painted the house black so it recedes from focus in the summer and gives the garden center stage. When plants are dormant in winter, the structure shines. Here, he shares a few of his tricks.

Tulips are popular around the World, often known as the soul of Spring, and historically symbolic for perfect love. Finding the perfect Tulip for your location can often be challenging, particularly as many of Tulip cultivar’s are fussy and short-lived.

Copper pennies contain pure copper, which has great antimicrobial, antifungal, antibacterial, conductive, and biostatic properties. It can also be helpful in a variety of other ways in the yard! Let’s have a look at some amazing Penny Uses in the Garden!

We had already purchased molds from Lowe`s that made this pattern. We are using this pattern that will come off the back porch and out to our sitting area with burn pit and adding two hammock chairs. We did not want everything to be matched, so we had to figure what kind of pattern we wanted. My hubby is building A bigger shop, that is why everything is in the yard. In the process of cleaning out the old shed we had A lot of empty ice cream buckets and knew someday we would use them for something.

For many folks, enjoying the summer means having a barbecue in the backyard with friends and family. Most gas grills that are available today don’t cater to small families or homes that don’t have the free space to include a large gas grill.

The Dominator Polymeric Sand is popular because of its flexibility, durability, and wide coverage. But, if you’re looking for polymeric sand that prevents erosion and deters insects from the joints, the Alliance Gator Maxx Intelligent Polymeric Sand will be ideal.

You can enjoy a fragrant garden, even if you don’t have space to garden. As the majority of the fragrant plants are mainly vines or shrubs, you can easily grow them in pots. Arrange these fragrant plants on your balcony, patio or rooftop garden according to your preference and climate.