Archive for October, 2010
Remember To Wrap Your Gardening Gifts In Love
To make your gardening gifts really unique wrap them in love and show your loved one you really care. You can gift wrap gardening gifts the traditional way or you can get just a little more creative with your gift wrapping. Here are some ideas to give your giftwrap a personal touch.
Garden Statues and Other Large Gardening Gift Items
For large gardening gifts such as fullsize garden statues birdbaths arbors a garden trellis garden fountains or patio furniture use creative party decorations instead of gift wrap. You can tie big bows and balloons along with a card attached to decorate the gift.
Or decorate the garden statue or fountain in plant or vegetable seed packs. To do this use a holepuncher to punch small holes in the very corner of each seed pack. Be sure not to puncture the pack where the seeds can spill. Then thread ribbon through each of the holes and tie them around the statue birdbath or patio furniture with excess curly ribbon hanging for extra decoration.
Gift Wrap for Bird Houses or Bird Feeders
Bird houses and bird feeders are smaller items so you can easily place them in a gardening gift basket along with other gardening items such as bird seeds vegetable or flower seed packs unique garden tools and other small garden decoration items. Fill the empty spaces in the basket with colorful cut shreds and fillers. Wrap the basket in a clear or colored shrink dome bag and finish with a beautiful bow assortment and gift card.
Small Garden Sculptures and Other Lawn Decorations
Gift wrapping small garden sculptures and other lawn decorations is a cinch with themed gift boxes. There are gardenthemed gift boxes that give your loved one just a “hint” of what’s inside. Fill the box with several of their favorite gardening decor items a small garden sculpture a wind chime a sun catcher along with some seeds a small bag of soil and a decorative planter. It’s sure to fill their heart as well!
Other GiftWrap Ideas
Gardening gifts can also be complemented by other items that are not particularly for gardening or lawn decoration. These might be a new coffee mug with a specialblend coffee gourmet chocolate treats baking mixes or pampering products for women such as lotions and bath oils. The male gardener might enjoy some new household tools tickets to a ball game or some new work shoes. Items such as these make great “extras” along with gardening gifts during the holidays or for any occasion.
You can use decorative gardenthemed gift bags instead of wrapping paper for a quick easy giftwrap alternative. There are also tieup gift bags that are colored or decorated for convenience. Wood crate baskets are also popular for gardening gifts. These are small decorative crates made of wood that are great for giving jars of jams or preserves small potted plants or flowers and other small gardening items.
Use these gardening gift wrapping techniques to make a great first impression when you present gifts to your friends and loved ones!
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Linda Cain at Rain Shadow LLC and Rain Shadow Gardens. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2007NOTE: Article shown above may be linked and circulated freely on web sites as long as ALL article content links author and copyright information remain UNCHANGED in any way whatsoever.
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Prefab Homes Green And Energy Efficient
The modern prefab home is all the rage. Now individuals can enjoy a modern stylish abode at half the cost of site built homes. With the advent of this method of home construction a person can live in style and comfort all at the same time. Modern prefab homes can be found in a variety of places but if one wants to see the latest homes plans they can find out more by visiting certain websites dedicated to the promotion of these unique domiciles.
A journey to find the perfect modern prefab home can be a long drawn out process if one does not know were to begin. The perfect site to start with is www.fabprefab.com. Not only can one find out all they want to know about these modernistic homes but they can also find out where the local modular homes dealers are as well as the architectural firms that specialize in these stylish decorative domiciles.
Want to see modern prefabricated homes for yourself? Then go to www.thedwellhomesbyempyrean.com and check out the Dwell homes. Designed by four architectural groups these homes go above and beyond anything ever seen in the modular home world before. Go ahead and visit their website so you can see the information for yourself.
A modern prefab home has the ability to allow a person to live in an upscale dwelling without the upscale price. One can even go green while enjoying their high design building. With the internet a person can find an architect that specializes in making modern prefab homes a reality. All one has to do is a little research and their new home could be just a click away. Finding that perfect home has never been so easy.
About the writer: As a retired contractor for California modular homes Bo Von Brockdorff has helped many a couple get the El Dorado County manufactured home of their dreams. Today Bo recommends Village Concepts to anyone looking to buy a Sacramento manufactured home from a certified Northern California manufactured home dealer.
Pondless Waterfalls: Concrete Vs. Pond Liner
The getrichquick factor in the pond liner industry has forced up the price of pond liner kits to equal the cost of concrete construction. If you search for the truth about concrete ponds and waterfalls from reading the literature of the greeddriven liner pond industry you will not find it. Why? Because if the truth be known no one in their right mind would invest good hardearned money in a pond liner!
The pond liner track record speaks for itself:
More than 37 of all waterfalls have serious structural damage within 3 years of construction.
57 of homeowners say they are rather unsatisfied with the way their waterfall came out after the project was completed.
One in three waterfalls and ponds are leaking water within nine months of completion.
63 of doityourselfers say they wished they had the proper information from the get go or that they had hired someone.
These statistics are from the pond liner industry itself Bob Wilder 48Hour Waterfall. I can confirm and attest to these figures myself. I have built over 1900 concrete and rebar waterfalls and ponds over the past 26 years. I have ripped out and replaced dozens of defective liner ponds and replaced them with concrete ones with lifetime warranties.
Pond liner guys will not attach more than a oneyear warranty. They make no guarantee against rats mice ground squirrels gophers tree roots and sharp objects.
Lets compare apples to lemons First lets talk about apples concrete waterfalls. We will construct a pondless waterfall that is 20 inches wide at the top by 20 feet long becoming 24 inches wide at the bottom to create a spillway 3 feet tall. At the bottom is a catch basin 4 ft. x 6 ft. x 3 ft. deep. The costs of excavation are as follows:
To dig a waterfall and basin takes two men 4 hours 20 per hour = 160.
The flexible PVC pipe is 35 ft. 1.25 per ft. = 44.
Concrete 3500 psi with stealth fiber: 2 yards = 250.
20 pieces of 20 ft. x 3/8 inch rebar = 100.
One 1/3 HP high efficiency pump 2800 GPH 356 watts = 429.
One antivortex drain = 10.
Four 2 x 4 ft. heavy plastic corrugated or galvanized plans to cover the collection basin = 35.
Setting the rebar: 3 manhrs. = 225.
Pumping and finishing 2 yards of concrete: 4 manhrs. 75/hr. = 300.
Applying thoroseal 1 sack 1 hour = 43.
Rock work 8 sacks mortar mix: labor 8 manhrs. 75/hr. = 600.
Mortar: 40.
TOTAL EXCAVATION COST FOR A CONCRETE POND = 2236.
With this type of construction no filter is needed. The water in the basin is not exposed to sunlight so there are no algae. Plus the top layer of rock and the planks are easily removed for cleaning out debris about once a year. If a plastic screen is placed over the planks before the rock layer cleaning is reduced by 90.
Now lets talk about the lemons the liner folks. The pondless waterfall liner kit advertised by all the disciples of the liner messiah on their websites is 1940 tax shipping or 2176.
And now for the math: One concrete/rebar construction pondless waterfall completed with highefficiency pump = 2236. One pondless liner kit to build a pondless waterfall of the exact same dimensions = 2176. If I did the math correctly the completed concrete pondless waterfall costs 60 more than the pondless waterfall liner kit; however it is still in the box!
Concrete and rebar pondless waterfall has a lifetime warranty. Liner pondless waterfall: 1 yr. warranty on labor lifetime warranty against factory defect. But there is no warranty whatsoever against holes caused by rats mice ground squirrels gophers tree roots sharp objects etc. Sorry Charlie!
Concrete and rebar pondless waterfalls use a highefficiency aboveground pump that is easy to service it has a 3 yr. warranty. The 1/3 HP pump is small very quiet and easily hidden behind a couple of rocks or plants next to the falls or piped to another part of the yard. The liner pondless waterfall uses a submersible sump pump that is placed in the bottom of the basin and then buried with hundreds of pounds of rocks. To service this pump only a 2 yr. warranty all the slimy stinky rocks have to be removed from the basin first.
The concrete and rebar pondless waterfall pump produces 5800 gallons per hour at only 356 watts retail 429. The liner pondless waterfall kit comes with a sump pump they advertise as the best pump on the market. It produces 5700 gal/hour 100 gal. less at a whopping 911 watts of power over twice that of the aboveground pump. You will pay 525 more per year for electricity at .12/kwh for that extra 555 watts. Their pump costs 600 retail 171 more than the aboveground. Oh did I mention the best warranty in the industry is only 2 years compared to 3 years for the aboveground?
The concrete and rebar pondless waterfalls rocks are all mortared in place. So anyone especially small children can climb on the rocks without them moving with possible serious injury resulting. With liner pondless waterfalls rocks will move and shift on their own without help. After a few months the ugly liner is exposed in the falls and around the pond.
While building the concrete pondless waterfall design liberties can be taken such as altering the length width or shape of the feature. With a liner pondless waterfall the parameters have already been set by the manufacturer of the kit.
The concrete pondless waterfall can utilize the large open basin to install an Aquafill automatic water leveling device. In addition the basin can be made smaller because the space for water is not taken up by rocks as it is in the liner pondless waterfall basin. The only rock that exists is on top of the galvanized or plastic plank cover.
Wow! Concrete waterfalls are stationary permanent lifetime lifeexpectancy cheaper to build cheaper to operate easier to clean easy to maintain longer pump warranty safer and more natural looking! Apples or lemons? You be the judge!
I am sick and tired of these amateurs giving my lifelong profession a bad name by their exaggerated dishonest and sensational claims only to be backed up by a nebulous warranty and at best shoddy workmanship. My disclaimer: There are professionals installing liners that do take measures to prevent rodent or root attacks by placing a think layer of mortar under and over the liner. I found that if you are going to go to all that extra work and expense just build it with 3500 psi concrete to begin with!
Happy koi peace and joy no koi no joy.
About the writer: For vital information on all things concerned with Frog Fountain and all Frog Gifts visit our Frog Fountain Website
