So Clever! A DIY Garden Trellis Made From Repurposed Materials

I’ve got a quick DIY idea for you guys today: a garden trellis made from a repurposed wooden bed frame!

These photos aren’t taken at my house, but rather when I was visiting a friend. With so many outdoor gardening projects on my to-do list lately, I guess my brain is just wired to look for them (kind of like whenever I work on molding projects; I find myself staring at people’s ceilings and windows to brainstorm!).

I spotted this on the side of the house and asked to take a few quick pics. Honestly, I think it’s pretty clever. I like how it repurposes something that would have likely been heading for a landfill. Clearly these are just getting started, but can you imagine them covered in flowering clematis?

This trellis looked like it was made from parts of a twin-size bed, but I think children’s bed frames would also be a good choice. A simple coat of opaque deck stain (it matches their front porch and rear deck stain) ties it together nicely and protects from the elements (when doing anything that leans against your siding like this, waterproofing is a wise move).

I guess it just goes to prove that I need to take more strolls around my neighborhood (and crash my friends’ places more often, too). Have you ever spied a clever repurpose project while out & about?

P.S. Don’t forget, there’s still a giveaway going on this week. Click here for the latest on my backyard garden and enter with a comment on the post for the chance to score some freebies!

The post So Clever! A DIY Garden Trellis Made From Repurposed Materials appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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So Clever! A DIY Garden Trellis Made From Repurposed Materials published first on https://noambouzaglou.wordpress.com/

So Clever! A DIY Garden Trellis Made From Repurposed Materials

I’ve got a quick DIY idea for you guys today: a garden trellis made from a repurposed wooden bed frame!

These photos aren’t taken at my house, but rather when I was visiting a friend. With so many outdoor gardening projects on my to-do list lately, I guess my brain is just wired to look for them (kind of like whenever I work on molding projects; I find myself staring at people’s ceilings and windows to brainstorm!).

I spotted this on the side of the house and asked to take a few quick pics. Honestly, I think it’s pretty clever. I like how it repurposes something that would have likely been heading for a landfill. Clearly these are just getting started, but can you imagine them covered in flowering clematis?

This trellis looked like it was made from parts of a twin-size bed, but I think children’s bed frames would also be a good choice. A simple coat of opaque deck stain (it matches their front porch and rear deck stain) ties it together nicely and protects from the elements (when doing anything that leans against your siding like this, waterproofing is a wise move).

I guess it just goes to prove that I need to take more strolls around my neighborhood (and crash my friends’ places more often, too). Have you ever spied a clever repurpose project while out & about?

P.S. Don’t forget, there’s still a giveaway going on this week. Click here for the latest on my backyard garden and enter with a comment on the post for the chance to score some freebies!

The post So Clever! A DIY Garden Trellis Made From Repurposed Materials appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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So Clever! A DIY Garden Trellis Made From Repurposed Materials published first on https://noambouzaglou.wordpress.com/

Is a Room Addition Right for Your Property?

You’re not stuck with a smaller home forever. You may decide to move someday to get the space you’ve always dreamed of for you and your family. Or, you may go for a less expensive route. There’s nothing like home-sweet-home, but you can make your home even sweeter by making room for more.

Still, it’s a lot to think about. Should you invest in a new room addition now? Or should you save for a larger home later? We’ve got some information so that you can find out whether a new room addition is the best choice for your house.

Finances

We don’t want to underexaggerate the financial investment that goes into a new room addition. You will need to spend money, and you should plan for more than you may think originally. Often, things come up, and trouble with plumbing, electrical, or HVAC work can add to the cost.

Still, we don’t need to point out that it’s considerably cheaper than getting a new larger house. If your family is expanding or if you’re simply at a point financially where you can make these decisions, a room addition will be a better option, and you’ll get to keep the home you already love.

Value

You would not add a new room to a home just to raise the market value. You won’t exactly get a return on investment for this addition, so it’s not worth it if you’re planning to move very soon. However, it’s certainly going to add on to the value of your home, which will only mature with time. If you plan to sell your home in 5 years or more, you’ll get to spend that time enjoying your new room addition, and you’ll get more out of the resale value when you do choose to put your home on the market.

Time

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and a new room of your home won’t be either. Planning alone can take several weeks. You’ll need to file for the right permits, hire your team, order supplies, and create a schedule and cost estimate so that the project stays on track. You can count on the job taking several months, or more, so be sure to plan for the time you’ll need. It’s possible you’ll need to make alternate accommodations for your family as well. In some cases, parents of young kids decide to wait until their children are older and can handle the change.

Other Options

Of course, a new room addition may not be your only option if you’re tired of the layout of your home. Perhaps it really is time for new home construction, or maybe you’d like to look into other neighborhoods. Of course, you can always focus on existing parts of the home for a remodel.

If it’s square footage you’re after, rather than an extra room, there may be a better way to add-on. A bump-out addition in a kitchen or bathroom, for example, can give you the space you need without such a major cost investment. Ask your contractor about the options you’re considering for more information.

Licensed and bonded Los Angeles contractors are here to help. Call Advanced Builders & Contractors today!

The Start of a Beautiful Before and After (+ Giveaway)

I’ve had a sad little corner of my back yard for too long. And, it’s time to fix it. I’ve already done a few improvements here and there, like replacing the front side of the chain link fence with a wooden one, but I’ve been working on a new corner garden lately, and I’m finally far enough along to share the first few glimpses with you this week!

It all started with a gift card. Like most DIY budgeters, I can really stretch a dollar when I need to, and an opportunity popped up for me to take care of this little nook thanks to a sponsor who just so happened to be a brand I’ve used in the yard before.

I love it when lucky coincidences like this happen, because it means that I get to do something I was pretty much going to do anyway, only I have an actual timeline that forces me to get my butt in gear as opposed to procrastinating indefinitely. Enter: Endless Summer® Hydrangeas.

If you’re a fan of the blog already, you might have seen me mention them before. I’ve had some of their Original variety in various parts of the house for several years now, and I absolutely love the color they add to both the front and back yard. If you’ve missed those posts where I show them off, here’s just a small sample of their gorgeousness:

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I could say that I get credit for any of that, but I really can’t. They’re just really easy plants for people who are bad at growing things (ahem, me) to build up their gardening confidence. I think my favorite part is that instead of blooming once, Endless Summer® varieties bloom over and over again, on both new growth and old (during the winter, the old stems on typical hydrangeas die off and you trim them back, but with these you can be super lazy like I am and let them be, because after August 1st don’t want to wind up cutting off the new buds that will come the next year). When they bloom and re-bloom through the fall, the color is absolutely stunning and totally different than how it looks in spring and summer:

With the new garden bed I wanted to plant, however, I was after a variety called BloomStruck®. From the images I’ve seen online, these bloom from pink to blue just like the ones I already have, but the color of the looks like they’ll be a deeper, moodier color.

I can’t wait to surround a petite blooming tree with these, with a spot in front for gravel and a small bench. In my head, I’m basically looking at this:

And thinking of a gorgeous little garden nook, with a small white-flowering tree, with just enough room to sit and read on a bench, surrounded by deep, purpley-pink flowers. Plus, as they bloom, they’ll make for excellent bouquets inside (especially when I mix them with their other variety counterparts).

When shopping at the local nursery (you can find a retailer here), I asked the clerk where I could find the BloomStruck® hydrangeas, but I probably didn’t even need to; this brand specifically puts all of their plants in a big blue pot, which is easy to spot when shopping around.

I loaded up a cart and headed for the checkout. To my surprise, they offered me a bag of ladybugs (yes, living ladybugs) to take with me and put in my new garden. Ha!

I loved the novelty of it, but promptly forgot about them*; it was time to plant!

*don’t worry, I later remembered.

With supplies filling the truck I borrowed, it took about a day and a half to get everything into the ground (and I’m still not done!). It’s not that planting them is all that difficult, but the prep and finish work: planning out an entirely new garden, making sure I’ve spaced things correctly, dealing with the frustration that is landscaping fabric, mulching, and cleaning up surrounding areas takes time.

I also want to cover over the chain link with fence panels (thus why you see them here), but with rain interrupting the project for the last few days, this is still on the to-do list. To be honest, one of the fence panels fell over and almost squashed all of the progress I’d made (thankfully the hydrangeas bounced back quickly), so I’m safely storing them away from the new garden until the shrubs have a chance to get established, and then I’ll go back in with the fence upgrade.

Planting the hydrangeas themselves was far easier; all I had to do was space them evenly, dig a hole (you can get planting soil if you’re starting a new bed, but the soil quality in my yard is pretty good on its own right now), and plop it in. I like to rub on the root ball a little to get it loose so that it takes to the new soil quickly, and then I put a little fertilizer on top once they’re in (Osmocote is my go-to for all of my plants, but I’ll talk more about color-changing fertilizer for hydrangeas in a future post).

For garden beds that I change up a lot, I don’t like to use landscaping fabric. It’s pricey per square foot and figuring out where the holes are each year is annoying, so I tend to use a thick layer of newspaper for beds like the mailbox and front garden because it breaks down over the season. But since I plan to let these BloomStruck® hydrangeas be the sole star of the corner garden, landscaping fabric is an excellent weed blocker to cover over all of the other areas (unfortunately, my back yard has weeds in abundance).

Next, I surrounded the new tree (it’s a tea olive, which is a shrub, but you can trim it to be like a tree as it grows bigger) with some leftover edging from another spot in the yard, and filled in the entire area with a thick layer of mulch. Good thing I did, too — the temps have been fluctuating a lot in the last couple of weeks because of rain, so the new beds have been kept very happy until I have a few more dry days to take next steps. But, as summer rolls on, I’m hopeful that this will be one stunning before and after!

One side of the house already has a few Original varieties in place, so I bought a few more with the gift card I was provided to help balance out both sides of the patio. Doing so will give a nice variety of color, even though they are the same plant (which is nice, because then it’s the same in terms of care).

As you can see from the growth on the biggest one that I planted a few years ago, they need lots of space to fan out as they mature. Even though they haven’t really taken up much time for me in the past, I really want all of the new ones to grow in as quickly as possible, so I’ll need to keep them fertilized in a timely manner (FYI, it turns out there’s a text program — text ENDLESSSUMMER to 73095 — that is designed to provide timely reminders to make sure I’m doing the upkeep correctly).

I’m not quite done yet, but this area is already looking incredible for spring! I’ll have more posts to share during the summer as I give this area more updates, and you can already see that I have some plans for the fence too. I honestly think this is going to be one of my favorite spots in the entire yard once it’s all finished.

And as you might have seen from the title of this post: there’s a giveaway for you, too! Here are all of the details:

Endless Summer® Bloomstruck Hydrangeas Giveaway!

• Prize: One (1) pair of Endless Summer branded gardening gloves and one (1) Picnic Time ‘Gardener’ 5-Piece Garden Tool Set With Tote And Folding Seat
• Number of winners: one
• Giveaway ends: Friday, May 19th at 11:59pm
• Geographical restrictions: U.S. only
• To enter:Leave a comment on this post answering the giveaway question below. Yes, you have to leave a comment. Or don’t, but if you don’t, you probably won’t win. I check them because I’d much rather reward a regular reader (usually giveaway jumpers don’t stop to leave a comment, so that seems to help your chances!).
• Please update the Rafflecopter widget to confirm you’ve left a comment. Winner will be chosen at random via the widget auto-generator.
• Giveaway question to answer (many of you know how this goes): Have you ever gotten a weird gift with purchase? What was it?

Ready, and… GO! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Where the Green Grass Grows (Finally!)

Houston, we have grass!

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It’s been kind of a slow process, but thanks to some help from a cute guy I know (is it a thing that guys want to take on grass-growing projects or something?? My friends and I had a frank discussion about it the other day, and they were all chiming in with their husbands and SO’s about how the guys took on the grass-growing and fertilizing tasks), I have a lot more green growing in the yard. Well, thanks to him, an efficient timer, and the sprinkler system he set up.

Solid truth: if you’re a lazy grower like I am, you need to have something that waters the yard for you. New grass is a needy baby, and I am not a diligent enough DIYer to do this as often as needed.

You might recall that less than two months ago, it still largely looked like the giant dirt pile that it was when I first filled in the deeper spots and evened out the most difficult areas with a backhoe (click for parts 1, 2, and 3 of that saga). I hired some help for prepping the dirt and spreading new seed, but the results were very disappointing. There were lots of factors considered (Charlie, the weather, foot traffic, birds eating the seed, etc.), but it wasn’t until I started using a sprinkler system that I realized that I was probably the biggest contributor to its first failure.

In a recent storm, a piece of my neighbor’s fence (the one you see above and below) was uprooted from a dead tree, which pretty much created a giant hole directly on the other side of my fence line. After all of the work I’ve done on this yard, the last thing I want to happen is for it to be ruined through erosion that I can’t do much about (since it’s also not on my property where the water is draining). So, keeping the dirt in the yard via plant roots and a thick layer of grass became even more important. The first step was putting in the new hedge, but the other was growing grass asap. Basically: if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again… and put in a better watering system. It soon became very obvious where I’m getting too much water, and where the sprinkler is missing its target.

Granted, it may not completely prevent erosion long-term (and I have a dog), but doing everything I can now is for the best. Some of the new growth has been a quick-grow rye seed (that will eventually die off after a season or two), but it allows time for the fescue to grow in. For several weeks, I kept all dogs away and limited foot traffic to prevent undoing most of the progress, but I’m about to hit the first milestone: the first mowing. Woo hoo!

I’ll have many more seasons of applications, weeding, etc. before it’s a nice, thick lawn like my landscaper-neighbor has in his yard, but I’m one (much greener) step closer! And to be honest, I am really grateful that I got to keep my hands off of this project while I was busy working on the others (that I’m revealing in just a week or two… stay tuned!).

(P.S. My happy, furry blur-ball approves.)

What have you been working on lately?

The post Where the Green Grass Grows (Finally!) appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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How I Got Twice The Hedge For Half The Price

I’ll be honest with you guys: I was kind of certain I was going to fail HARD with this little “trick” I’m about to show you.

I waited until I started seeing new growth, so I think I’m in the clear and can finally share.

I first hinted at my cheat last month when I mentioned that I planted a bunch of new boxwood shrubs along my backyard fence line. Fourteen of them, to be exact. But the truth is, I only spent real dollars on seven of them, because I was able to successfully split each shrub in half! The trick? All I had to do was look for plants that had two existing stems in the same pot.

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My reason for the new hedge line was twofold. With the way my lot works out in my neighborhood, I have four different neighbors’ back yards facing my own, which has led to a hodgepodge of fencing surrounding me on three sides (some of which have the “ugly” side facing me, and some with the cosmetic side). If you look back at the yard fill-in project I did last summer, you can see and compare each. I could put up my own new fence line (and sort of have been, slowly), but finishing the rest is both time-consuming and costly, and not really convenient to do in the near future with all of the other exterior and interior projects I have going on this year. I also have my own chain link fence on two sides of the yard, which while ugly, is still very functional for Charlie The Escape Artist and other pups who come to visit. So, by planting a bunch of shrubs along the longest part of the yard, I can actively be growing a newer, more beautiful division that masks my neighbors’ fences and my own while I get to work on more urgent projects. It’s not immediate, of course, but then again hardly anything with this house ever is.

When I went looking for hedge shrubs, I wanted to find the cheapest and the hardiest ones I could find. Given that spring sales are abundant right now, I was able to find pots of boxwoods at a big box store for $5 each. The common boxwood isn’t really my favorite plant in general because they are pretty boring to look at. However, when healthy, they have a decent growth rate, make for excellent hedges, and can seamlessly grow into each other with very little care (aka neglect, which is what I need to be doing right now). I noticed while shopping that many of them had two stems growing out of each pot rather than one, and it got me thinking: could I possibly just split them into two separate plants?

Well, since you probably know from experience that I like to take a gamble with DIY projects, I decided to go for it so I could tell you if it’s worth doing. It is!

Tools and Materials Used:

• boxwood plants
• heavy duty utility knife (this one’s my favorite and worth every penny IMO)
• small garden shovel (buy a set like this for better prices per unit)
• slow-release fertilizer
• landscaping fabric
• flexible, no-dig landscape edging
• root growth hormone
• mulch
• drip hose

The process is really pretty simple, but I wanted to give this new hedge the best no-fuss start I could. I started with some landscaping fabric and ran a line of flexible landscape edging to contain the mulch. Then after spacing and digging holes, I split each boxwood plant along the middle to separate its two stems using a small garden shovel and utility knife (I didn’t want to rip/mangle them too much, so cutting seemed better than tearing with my hands).

Then, I used my new favorite secret weapon: root growth hormone. I’ll be sharing some other wins thanks to this handy stuff soon, but for the hedges, I just sprinkled them on the shredded ends of the plants once split, then plopped them into the ground. The soil in this back area has excellent drainage since it was part of the fill-in project, so I needn’t worry about soil quality. I covered over the entire hedge line with mulch and added some fertilizer along with a soaker hose (to keep the plants watered until they were established, but not double my workload in the process, this hose has a bunch of holes in it to periodically water along the length of it). The hose comes loopy and kinks up easily, so I weighted them down with extra edging and bricks I found from removing the trees in years past since the mulch wasn’t heavy enough to do that on its own.

So, that’s pretty much how I got twice the hedge for half the price. Thanks to the drip line and recent rain, the boxwoods are already sprouting new growth and seem to be doing very well! They’re even tolerating Charlie’s frequent strolls around the perimeter (she seems to have a liking for how mulch feels underfoot, I suppose). It will take several years before they grow tall enough to hide anything, but in the meantime, I’ll be able to remove the chain link fence, build the new shed, and concentrate on the next 1,257 things on the to-do list.

Oh, and all of that green grass you see on the left of that photo? That’s been a success too… more soon!

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How I Got Twice The Hedge For Half The Price published first on https://noambouzaglou.wordpress.com/

Slaburday: Laying a Concrete Slab for Trash Bins