Garden Dcor: Ideas To Infuse Your Garden With Charm And Character

There is no limit to the prettifying and relaxing powers of avid garden decor. A terrace hived away in fieldstone that borders a cultivated garden; a footpath created of old brick that meanders between beds of flowers emphasized by elegant garden statuary; a summerhouse that anchors the center of a number of conventional flowerbeds - all these and several more decorative refinements can and will upgrade your garden from average to breathtaking!

You want an example? Well, strategically based garden lighting for example can bring your landscaping to life and make your evenings last longer. Consider applying tiny, bright chains of lights woven through the branches of trees to create a phantasy world feel or pathway solar lights shaped like lanterns to lend an Asian affect.

Garden furniture can be an immense component in garden decor design. Consider the different directions in which the silverish, raw tones of weather-beaten teakwood benches or the crimson of a span of Adirondack chairs would affect your garden composition. Accessories are crucial, too: integrating stone or alloy statuary, wind bells, birdbaths and bird feeders into your garden design will give it a extremely personalized spirit.

Although terraces and other seating areas support congregating and socializing, support structures such as trellises and lattices, gates, benches and stone walls provide definition for your garden. And although there are no strict rules for selecting and employing the components of your garden�s decor, these are a few hints for trying out different scenarios:

A place for everything and everything in its best place: When ranging your beds of flowers and borders, keep garden supplements in mind. Will your stone bench work better in the middle of your beds of roses or under a aging tree? Will your bronze armillary overwhelm the plants next to it? Should you buy an antique watering can to accent your wildflower garden? By decently placing an object, you can avoid having it look as it if was placed randomly in the garden.

Create focal points by placing decorative elements or functional pieces where garden paths naturally conjoin or in areas where they are a good fit: A frog statue looks great by a pond. Not on the edge of a patio. Birdbaths can fit into several different arenas, but benches and other garden seating work best when placed in a comfortable, shady area with a wonderful view.

Avoid making your garden appear 'junky' and rather 'cheap'. Remember that it's probably a better idea to use just a couple of large and themed decor objects (such as a statue, fountain, sundial, armillary, stone benches) rather than a large number of smaller garden objects spread all over the place. And one more hint: keep both the size of your garden and plants in proportion with the chosen objects.

Upgrading your garden from average to breathtaking is a matter of trying and (probably) re-trying. It's probably fair to say some re-arranging will be involved. Think and plan, but don't waste too many hours on it. There comes a point when you just have to get out there and get your hands dirty.

Esmee McCornall is a 'Gardoholic' publisher and writer. She recently published a guide called "Tips and Tricks to Create the Garden You Always Wanted". You can download a FREE copy at gardensandflowers.netArtificial Lighting Photography
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Decorative Uses For the Scarves You Used to Wear

Scarves are still one of the most beautiful fabric pieces available today. Their original use, as an accessory for an outfit, has never gone out of style. We have worn them around our neck, wrapped around our head and in the pockets of or clothing.

I am finding that I really love decorating with them as well. How? Here are some ideas you may want to consider:

1 - Sort them by colors, and size, and use all the same sized ones, with complimentary colors to make a table runner, or table cloth. You can assemble this with lose hand-stitched whip stiches, that don't damage the scarf.

2 - Drape them over lampshades. I do this here with lamps that have 40 watt bulbs. If you do this, be very sure you don't have your scarf too close to your bulb or that you use a bulb of a higher wattage than 40 watts.

3 - I have also used scarves to cover lifts that I use to raise some items up in some of my tablescapes. For instance, loosely cover an empty small box with a pretty scarf, set it on a table and place a small figurine on the box. Then add two other items to the display, nestled in the folds and drapes of the scarf.

4 - Create a new lamp by standing a thin lamp inside a vintage handbag, then drape a scarf out of the handbag, with some jewelry and a pair of glasses. I did this and I love it.

5 - I use some of my larger scarves as a drape over my wicker chairs. They can be used as a "slipcover" for a chair seat, using pins on the back of the cushion to secure the scarf in place and not damage it.

6 - Use your scarves as dresser scarves.

7 - Frame them. If you do so between two pieces of acrylic, you can hang them where they can be seen from both sides. A good place to do this is over a table like a chandelier or in a place where you want a small "room divider - something where you want your eye to divide the room, but not have all the space taken up by a true room divider.

8 - Use them as a curtain valance by just draping them over your curtain rods.

9 - I have some draped over the edge of some of my display shelves here. They add another element to the displays by breaking up the straight lines of the shelf edges.

10 - Hang scarves topped with hats off a peg rack to make a wall display.

Hopefully, you will find some of these ideas useful for that collection of yours. I look at my scarves as pieces of art, and like to display them accordingly.

Nancy, the Frugal Decorating Diva, substitutes creativity for money - and comes up with a better result. Read more about how to do that at FrugalByDesign">FrugalByDesign or email Nancy at :nancyfrugalbydesign" class="hft-email">nancyfrugalbydesignClive Mclean Photography
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Which of the Hundreds of Tomato Varieties Should I Plant?

Tomatoes are such a staple in the modern diet that it is hard to believe there was a time when this versatile fruit was once thought to be poisonous. Thankfully this member of the nightshade family has been known for centuries now to be a delicious and healthful addition to our diet and is now one of the most popular garden vegetables.

For many people, tomatoes are the most challenging, yet desirable, vegetable crop to grow. But a ripe, juicy homegrown tomato is so delicious and nutritious, people will go to great lengths to produce as many as they possibly can in their gardens. One look at the pale, hard, orange baseballs that grocery stores pass off as tomatoes will also explain why so many gardeners eagerly await the first ripe tomato from their gardens.

Considering that tomatoes are a tropical fruit native to South America, its amazing that we can grow them at all in northern climates. Yes, the tomato is technically a fruit since it grows on a vine. There are literally hundreds of tomato varieties out there to choose from but there are only two types of tomato vines; determinate and indeterminate.

Determinate tomato varieties grow more as a bush, growing only to a certain height and producing most of their fruit all at once. Determinate varieties are most suitable for gardeners who are interested in canning tomatoes since the crop will ripen over a relatively short period of time. Determinate tomato varieties are also a good choice for gardeners with limited space available, and some determinate varieties are well suited to container growing and are an excellent choice for the patio garden.

Determinate tomato plants should never be pruned, as this will severely limit the number of blossom sets the plant can produce, thus reducing the number of tomatoes on the plant. However, an indeterminate variety will continue to grow and will keep producing fruit for the entire life of the plant, or up until frost. Each new set of blossoms will grow farther up the vine as the plant grows. Indeterminate tomato plants also require a bit more care to keep the plants manageable in the garden.

In order to keep these big plants from sprawling all over the ground and creating an impenetrable mass of foliage, indeterminate tomato varieties should be pruned and trellised. A tomato plant that is restricted to producing on only two to four main stems will still produce plenty of fruit and the tomatoes will tend to grow larger than those on an unpruned plant.

To prune an indeterminate tomato plant, simply pinch off the little shoots, or suckers that grow out from the main stem in the crotch between the stem and each leaf branch. Each one of these suckers can grow to become another big stem and would grow its own tomatoes and eventually grow its own suckers. But you dont want your tomato plant to waste time and energy by growing all those suckers. By pruning off most of them, the plant will devote more energy to producing ripe, juicy tomatoes.

Since youll want more than one main stem for tomato production, allow the suckers nearest the bottom of the plant to grow. These will have more blossoms and will be easier to trellis than suckers that sprout higher up on the plant. Pruning will also improve air circulation through the plant which can help prevent disease problems, especially in humid weather.

Once you decide whether to grow determinate or indeterminate tomato varieties, its time to peruse the garden centers or seed catalogs to find the seeds or plants that will produce your prized fruit. Although a few of the more enlightened garden centers are now selling a wider variety of tomato plants, many still offer only a few of the old standby hybrid varieties such as Big Boy and Early Girl.

Youll have more varieties to choose from if you decide to start your tomato plants indoors from seed. Imagine growing tomatoes with names like Cherokee Purple or Mortgage Lifter. Add more color to your favorite tomato salsa recipe with yellow Garden Peach tomatoes, German Pink or Green Zebra. For stuffing tomatoes, try Striped Cavern, and for salads grow some Christmas Grape tomatoes.

If you plan on preserving tomatoes to enjoy over winter, you will want a meatier tomato such as Martinos Roma or Amish Paste for sauces. Wisconsin 55 and Ace are two varieties that are especially good for canning or freezing. There are even varieties that have a lower acid content for the folks who cant eat a high-acid tomato, and varieties that have more Vitamin C than oranges.

Tomatoes are one of the most versatile garden vegetables. There are as many ways to prepare tomatoes as there are tomato varieties. Whether you like to eat them fresh out of the garden like an apple, or you make your own spaghetti sauce or tomato salsa, whether the variety you grow is red, orange, yellow, purple, white or striped, tomatoes are the most useful and tasty garden vegetable.

Kathy Anderson has been an avid gardener for many years and has grown tomatoes by the acre, along with many other vegetables, flowers and landscape plants. Kathy recommends freeplants">freeplants as a great place to learn more about gardening. Article provided by gardening-articles">gardening-articles. If you use this article the above links must be active.Custom Creations Photography
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