OutsideModern

Lawn and Garden

Backyard Watering Instructions for Lawn, Plants, Trees & Shrubs

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Watering your lawn, trees, and shrubs is crucial during periods of dry weather. Homeowners wanting a vibrant, green backyard need to water regularly and be ready to bring out the garden hose when the rainfall dries up. Underwatering will leave the backyard looking brown and put the long term health of your plants at risk. Proper backyard watering is key to a great looking home.

Some areas restrict the hours or days that homeowners can water, so be sure to check with your local municipality before implementing a regular watering schedule. Be mindful of any watering restrictions in place, but be aware that these restrictions often do not apply to new plantings. New plantings often require extensive watering, and homeowners must be mindful to provide that or the plants health will be at risk.

Protecting your investment in plants requires giving them the water they need to grow. Not providing enough water will leave plants unhealthy and susceptible to disease. However, plants can also be impacted by overwatering so homeowners want to be sure that they are mindful during the process. Watering instructions for your backyard will depend on the weather rainfall and the type of plants you have. Use this guide below to find the best way to water new sod, new seed, ground covers, shrubs, and trees. [Read more…] about Backyard Watering Instructions for Lawn, Plants, Trees & Shrubs

Best Large Planters

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It’s a wonderful time of year, for those ruled by seasons, when the warmer weather arrives. Flowers begin to bloom in the backyard and we have a great urge to get outside and enjoy all that the world has to offer.

This is a time of new growth and we have a deep itch to re-plan our raised or elevated garden beds. We search around for new ideas to the landscape of our backyard as we brush away winter’s chill. Not everybody has a backyard or even has good light or growing soil in their garden area. Fear not, you can still enjoy the bright colors of nature all around you.

One way to get around such problems is to add large planters everywhere. The best large planters are very versatile. They are mobile while empty, so can be re-positioned wherever the mood takes you. Plus, you can change the display of plants nestled within their protective walls every year.
best large planters
If you don’t have a backyard, planters are the perfect solution to bringing nature onto the patio deck or into your home. Add color to your balcony and watch the butterflies and bees buzz around your floral displays. There’s a never-ending range of designs and colors, all it takes is imagination.

Planters come in all shapes, sizes, and colors so let’s narrow it down and consider the materials they’re made from first before looking at options and fillers.

Planter Box Materials

Wood Large Planters

From a traditional wooden barrel to a wheelbarrow shaped pot, wooden planters can be great at blending into the natural flow of nature. By using different types of wood you will gain a range of varying shades. Or, you can even paint or varnish them, making sure to use a non-toxic product.

Wood is often pre-treated with weather resistant solutions, making them rot-proof. You can further varnish it to add another protective sealant. These types of planters are frequently designed to be raised off the floor, with legs. Or, they can stand on the floor and look equally as effective. If you’re worried about natural organic decay, place a sealant membrane on the inside to slow it down. A well maintained wooden planter can last up to 20 years.
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Best 100 ft Garden Hose

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An extra long garden hose is an essential garden tool. The right hose can save you hours of walking and carrying water, but one that performs poorly can waste water through leakage at the spigot, pump, or sprayer. In addition, a good quality hose is light enough to carry but rugged enough to last several seasons.

More than that, you want a hose that is not going to wear you out when you are lugging it from place to places, especially if you are using it for spot watering, cleaning the deck, or any number of other on-the-spot water applications. Your hose needs to be rugged enough that if you drag it over a border of rough concrete block, it will not instantly develop a hole in it. Nor do you want to have to continuously backtrack down the length of your hose to disentangle knots, loops and kinks.

Furthermore, you want to buy your extra long garden hose from a company you can trust. You want to know that if your garden hose gets lost in the mail, is sliced by a careless box cutting during packing or shipping, or otherwise arrives defective or with lost parts, that company will stand by their product and reimburse you for any loss in a timely, non-argumentative fashion. After all, you have a garden to water, a deck to hose down or even the dog to wash! That’s where good warranties come in.

Without further ado, let’s look at our reviews of five of the best expandable 100 foot garden hoses.

Best 100ft Garden Hose

This super light garden hose from Blavor expands under pressure to 100ft from an original length of 33ft. Covered in a strong fabric and 4-layer latex to prevent tears or cracks over long term use. Solid brass connectors on each end help prevent leaks and are easy to connect. Tangle free design resists twists or kinks.

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Best Lawn Edger

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A perfectly manicured outdoor space can take a lot of work, but it gets easier when you have the right tools for the job. Homeowners that want beautiful, crisp edges around lawn and garden beds should consider purchasing an edger. A powerful lawn edger can roll along the sidewalk, driveway, or path and cut a strong, crisp line at the edge of the grass.

An edger can be either gas or electric powered. It has a rotating blade that cuts into the ground, trimming off roots and grass and leaving behind it a clearly defined cut. Some edger models combine the edge feature with a string trimmer to get two chores done at one time. While the edger blade is cutting along a sidewalk or bed, the trimmer is taking down any grass that escaped away from the lawn mower.

A garden or lawn edger is sometimes confused with a trimmer. They both can do some of the same jobs around the backyard. Trimmers are typically either a string trimmer that is used to clean grass and weeds from corners and edges of an area or it can be a hedge trimmer, with an oscillating blade, that is used to shape bushes and keep topiary neatly trimmed.

Both edgers and trimmers are used to clean up edges and corners where a regular lawn mower cannot reach. They are the best way to develop a trim, neat lawn area that tidily ends where beds or sidewalk begins. A power edger provides a quick way to neatly take care of the grass, weeds and roots that like to undermine or infiltrate walks, drives or bedding areas. With that said, it is also nice to have a manual edger to take up the slack where the power edger runs into trouble.

The best lawn edger will depend on several factors like the size of the lawn and how often you plan to use it. Gas powered edgers have the most power and capability to get any size job done. Corded electric edger machines are best for small lawns and gardens. Battery power will extend your range, but might not be as powerful as corded or gas powered. A manual edger is a good backup when all other resources fail. Below we take a look at our favorite type of garden edger from several different categories.

Best Lawn Edger

With a strong, gas powered motor and an easily adjustable blade, this garden edger from McLane gives homeowners everything they need to maintain the edges of a long sidewalk or driveway.

Powerful spinning blade makes quick work of lawns and roots leaving only a crisp, clear edge. This edger is expensive but it is powerful, reliable and sturdy.

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Growing Shade: Grow Your Own Shade For A Deck Or Patio

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When you plan your deck or patio you have to take into account how much shade it will have. A key part of having an amazing outdoor space is proper balance between sunlight and shade.

Patio umbrellas and shade sails help homeowners quickly control the sunshine, but a lot of people wonder if they can effectively grow a natural shade element to protect them from the sun.

Growing shade can be easy. Homeowners with time on their side can plant a tree and wait for it to grow into place. With proper planning and pruning it is possible to provide shade to your patio. Depending on your climate it might even be possible to plant a fruit tree or fragrant flower that adds to the environment.

growing shade

For people in need of a faster solution, plantings that grow up along a wire, trellis, or guide can provide several months of good shade. Growing your own shade with an ivy or other greenery can provide a very organic, calming space and bring more color into the backyard. It can improve a building’s energy efficiency, and also can be used to create privacy in a more natural way than bringing in a cumbersome umbrella.

shade tree

The Green Screen project shown above is by the Hideo Kumaki Architect Office and is one of the most popular examples of effectively growing shade using ivy or other plants.

Types of Plants for Growing Shade

A plant curtain can be grown using a number of different plants including morning glory, sweet pea, bitter melon vines, and more. Morning glory works well and they have a nice flower that blooms in the morning. Flowering bougainvillea can also be lovely. Carefully consider what sort of plant is right for your climate and maintenance routine. All plants have advantages and drawbacks that homeowners should be mindful of.

Passion vines work well for homeowners and it can grow quickly up a lattice. The plant provides good shade in the summer. Place a soaker hose underneath it with a wifi water timer to easily keep them watered. The fragrance is great and can often attract birds. Jasmine and thumburgia also work well on a trellis or arch.

shade trellis ivy

Hops is another popular choice for growing shade. Hops dies back to the root system every year and then regrows over the spring. By early summer the plant can start providing good shade. In the winter the vines won’t be there, but the summer and fall will be nice. Plus it will smell good and you can use the flowers to make beer!

Similarly, many homeowners recommend using grapes to grow natural shade for your deck or patio. The grape vines are sturdy and can provide a lot of ambience all year long. They provide a charming, rusting sense of nature that can enhance a lot of outdoor spaces. The grape vines do have to be trimmed otherwise it will look bad and you won’t get any grapes.

grape vines shade

Care and Maintenance of Natural Shade

The trimming of your vines is important and homeowners planting for shade should carefully consider the work involved. While backyard vines and plantings can be beautiful, they routinely will grow several feet a month during the summer. At that rate they can quickly overtake anything in their path like your roof or neighboring trees. Growing your own shade requires a lot of regular trimming.

Ivy can be trained to follow a line or trellis but it does not magically know how to stop when it reaches your roof. A lot of clipping is involved in the beautiful images that you find online promoting shade from ivy, vines, and flowering plants. Maintenance can also be difficult because things die and new things grow on top. If you leave it too long it will make things look like they are half dead. Also, for the best looking shade you have to often cut it back every year and let it regrow so it will only provide shade for a portion of the summer. The maintenance is a big drawback to growing your own shade.

Do You Want Spiders? That’s how you get spiders.

The other big drawback is that spiders, insects, and rodents that might find your planting attractive. The natural element cascading up to your roof presents conducive conditions for animals to travel from the ground to cracks and nooks in your building. Homeowners imagine relaxing at a picnic table underneath a natural green canopy but underestimate just how much people fear a spider jumping down onto them.

Now spiders are useful at killing other insects and they are not known to just jump down out of trees but they can put a lot of fear into some people and quickly spoil a meal. Of course, many people think it is great to have spiders, birds and lizards living in a plant nearby because it keeps the bugs down. Also, the fragrance from a planting often smells good and the bird singing can be great.

Conclusion

Growing your own natural shade using ivy or the like can be an exciting experience. The plants can take root fast and quickly move up the vine to provide you with great shade by the mid summer. Lots of different plants can be used successfully and will provide a positive experience.

However, some homeowners underestimate the work involved in trimming the plants to keep them looking good. Ivy or other shade plants can quickly overgrow your space and end up on the roof and under the shingles where they can make access easy for rodents and bugs. If you are going to stay on top of the maintenance it can be a very rewarding experience, but if not remember that umbrellas and sun shades are so popular because they look nice, install easy, don’t harbor any insects, and are virtually maintenance free.