The beauty that a home and a garden possess is truly a sight to behold. A beautiful and well-kept garden takes time and effort to cultivate and a keen sense to flower and color details is needed to make it look attractive. It is for this reason that homeowners extend their doors to visitors who would like to marvel at the beauty of their surroundings.

The Garden Club of Charleston holds a house and garden tours each spring for its members and other participants. The tour will include a visitation of Charlestons historic and magnificent homes and their gardens. Fine and awesome flower arrangements by the club members adorn these beautiful historic homes. The owners of these homes have graciously opened their doors for the garden club and its visitors to see.

The House and Garden Tours possess strict regulations that should be observed during the duration of the tour. Children below 12 years old are not allowed since the travel could not make them comfortable. Children also tend to be playful and the club does not want to them to break anything in this private homes. A comfortable clothing and pair of walking shoes or sandals are recommended because of the spring temperature in South Carolina which is humid. The participants will walk on streets lined with bricks and cobblestones that is why high heels are not advisable.

A vigorous, shade tolerant, truly evergreen ground cover of neat habit, and resistant to Mid-America’s climatic adversities was years ago, only a dream.

In 1934 a dreamer and unusual plant curator from the central Midwest, Dr. Edgar Anderson of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, was “browsing” in the far corners of the world. From Europe he brought home many varieties of ivy. Two of those from the Balkans had by 1945 survived here and proved worthy of formal introduction and naming. To one of these Hedera helix of the Ginseng family he gave the name MBG Bulgaria (The MBG comes from Missouri Botanical Garden.)

He had found it growing vigorously in the deep shade of a beech forest behind the Rila Monastery at the head of a valley in the Bulgar mountains. This is a land of rigorous winters and languorous summers. Now for 20 years the ivy has been growing vigorously in the Mausoleum grounds near the old Shaw residence of the Missouri Botanical Garden. It remains verdant and live looking winter and summer. As a ground cover it is attractive with its uniform six-inch height and horizontal leaves averaging four inches wide, shallowly lobed, and not prominently veined. Although somewhat denser in deep shade, it stays uniform with no bare spots in areas of light shade and even full sun.

The time for BBQs & outdoor living is upon us. In this short article I’ve gathered together 20 important tips to help you enjoy to the full your outdoor cooking.

1. You have a choice when cooking outdoors, will you use gas or charcoal? Chose charcoal if you love those wonderful flavors that come from the smoke; chose gas if prefer cleanliness, control and convenience. If you go for charcoal always start the fire naturally, never use lighter fuels or you’ll pick up those ugly chemical smells, no matter how long you wait!

2. Ask yourself, are you making an investment for the future when buying your outdoor cooking equipment? Cheap equipment just won’t last and it will disappoint! Make it an investment, go for quality.

2. Ask yourself a simple question when buying outdoor cooking equipment. Is my money going towards an investment or something that just won’t last. If its an investment you’re after, don’t go for something cheap, it simply won’t pay off in either the short or long term; and maybe worse, it will soon become a great disappointment! Go for quality; you know it makes sense.

As part of the renovation nation we bought a my parents home built in the 1950′s and it had a landscaping problem. The parents wanted something different. To keep the grass and weeds from creeping in from the lawn they decided to put the flowers in stone and concrete beds.

This would give a bed above lawn level and required less upkeep. The first step they took was to build a wooden form the desired length, height and width. The beds were raised about five inches above lawn level. A second form was built three inches smaller to fit inside the first form, and in which the concrete is poured. After the forms were built they used the outside form as a guide to dig a trench about six or seven inches deep by three wide. This trench acted as a form for the foundation and was below the frost line. The forms were then secured above the trench and ready to pour the concrete.

Ready-mixed concrete was used but mixed most of the beds using one part cement to two parts sand and a little lime which gives the beds a white appearance when set.

You may have heard about the new White House vegetable garden, or maybe you have already thought about organic vegetable gardening for a while. In any case, if you too want to get rid of some or all of your labor-intensive, environmentally unfriendly lawn, here’s how to do it.

Many people who would like to turn to organic vegetable gardening are put off by the idea that it must be a difficult and time-consuming endeavour, and that a lot of tilling and other back-breaking work is involved. In fact, if you follow some basic permaculture precepts and let nature do its work, it will be very easy work. Unless your lawn is contaminated by a lot of pesticides, you won’t even have to remove the grass.

First, delimit the lawn area for your organic vegetable garden with some thread, or with chalk. You can make it as big as the White House veggie garden patch, thirty by thirty feet, or smaller. Water this area generously, making sure that the ground is thoroughly soaked.

Outdoor teak furniture is the missing component for your new patio, porch or back garden. Have you always wanted to entertain your guests outdoors in comfortable, dependable surroundings? Then teak furniture is definitely the way to go.

Teak furniture is made from teak wood, which comes from the Teak tree in Southeast Asia. It is renowned for its dense properties and durability, making it ideal for the construction of anything from houses or bridges to patio tables and chairs.

Owning furniture made from teak wood therefore assures you peace of mind that your home or business will contain quality, durable furniture that will last for many years to come. Whether you are looking to add an executive look to your new offices or simply want some stylish new accessories for your home, you can’t go wrong with teak furniture.

Outdoor teak furniture is particularly appealing because it does not simply represent a table to use or a chair to sit on, but rather superior quality furnishings beautifully handcrafted to the finest of details. Rest assured that teak furniture will add style and substance to your home through the highest standards of craftsmanship.

Laura Ashley has moved into the garden. There has never been a more perfect marriage, the beauty of high quality garden furniture combined with classic timeless Laura Ashley fabric design.

The stand out product in the range of Laura Ashley Garden Furniture is the Sandbanks deckchair. The frame is manufactured in the hardwood Balau and is carefully crafted to a high specification with some modern design improvements to the traditional original Edwardian deckchair.

One of the main improvements is the new click lock system for the 3 recline positions. The scourge of the deckchair consigned to history at a stroke. The positive click lock can be operated by ones foot and ensures the deckchair cannot collapse when one is in it.

The sun shade canopy is adjustable and can be moved up or down to protect ones face from the sun. The Lloyd fabric sun canopy is the reverse of the seat design which is dominated by the black coloured background with the classic Laura Ashley pattern in printed in biscuit.

The stylish and elegant footstool has a folding leg base so can be angled downwards or removed completely.

north February

February also is the month to do some serious planning of the garden for the coming season instead of waiting until you have the seeds or plants in hand ready to be planted in spring. This is an ideal time to consider all the possibilities, color combinations, sizes and textures, space requirements and all the important details that will make a garden more than a mere collection of plants.

Garden planning should be done on paper after a list of the plants you prefer has been compiled. Quadruled paper which may be secured from office supply stores or artists supply shops is a great aid in making planning on paper easy because the lines give you an exact scale with which to work, use the eight or ten scale ruled paper.

Give an index or key number or letter for each of the plants you want to grow. Then on the basis of their size and form, color and texture of both foliage and flowers, develop a plan on the paper.

You will be amazed at how simple planning can be and how superior results are over the hit-or-miss, spur of the moment type of planning which is so commonly done a few minutes before planting.

The majority of bonsai gardeners stick with the more common coniferous, deciduous, or fruit trees when creating their bonsai art collection. However, more exotic bonsai varieties can be found that permit the bonsai artist to further develop his or her skills.

Wisteria is a fine alternative to the more traditional bonsai. A native of Japan, Korea and China, it can reach 30 feet in the wild. Shaping one into a bonsai is an interesting challenge, in as much as they don’t conform to any of the normal styles.

The Wisteria flowers are both beautiful and aromatic and come in a variety of colors, including purple, blue, white, and pink. Blooming in the Spring, they need lots of water with adequate drainage and they do well in partial shade to full sun. Just before they flower in the Spring, you should provide them with ample fertilizer, and once again in late summer before they drop their leaves.

If you love fragrant flowers, an excellent option is Orange Jasmine which produces a bright red fruit and fragrant white blossoms, bringing both delight to the nose and beauty to the eye.

Many of us like roses, but what if we are allergic to them, or if they are simply too expensive for our budgets? In fact, there’s a way to have the beauty of roses in your house all the time, without the expense and upkeep. Called “replica roses,” these silk roses are every bit as beautiful as fresh ones, except that they’re even better. They last forever, they won’t cause allergic reactions, they never need to be watered, and they won’t die.

How can you use replica roses? Replica roses can be used anywhere you’d use fresh roses. Give them to loved ones for anniversary presents or birthdays, say, “I’m thinking of you,” to friends or family with a single rose, or present a bouquet of silk roses to a sick friend in the hospital and cheer him or her up.