Vines and windows just naturally go together; each helps the other to brighten a room and give it a garden air. And most windows are so light and bright, you’re not limited to the trustworthy foliage vines. You can have flowers. And you have a wide, wide variety of vines to choose from. Even a shaded window is the best place to display some sun-loving plant you’ve grown to full flower in other, more suitable quarters.

A single hanging container displayed at eye level – a luxuriant tuberous begonia or fuchsia spilling cascades of glowing flowers; the silver-patterned, plum purple Cissus discolor; or the brilliancy of an ivy geranium – will stop visitors in their tracks. Or use a matching pair of wall brackets, one at each side, to soften the straight lines and sharp corners of the window frame, with a flowering or foliage variety that drifts down or climbs up the casing. Or set a fast-growing specimen like velvety Cissus in an urn on the floor at one side of the window, and let it scramble up cords strung inside the frame.

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Restful and easy-to-live-with as they are, vines are not at their best trained haphazardly on a wall – any available wall – the way paintings are often hung to fill an empty space.

The lines of vines are so prominent that using them in a by-guess-and-by-golly manner can cause confusion and even offense. Except for spectacular specimens that become focal points wherever they’re placed, vines are usually most effective used in combination with other plants or items like pictures, mirrors, pieces of furniture.

But used with care, vines can create breathtaking effects against walls, fireplaces, railings of stairs, and other vertical areas. To harmonize and connect a background – the wall – with a table or chair standing before it, hang or train a vine just above the furniture. Stand back and squint at the composition to see if it is balanced. Check the relative proportions of space, to furniture, to plant. Decide whether the shapes are harmonious, whether colors and textures have interesting contrast. Then, congratulate yourself on achieving one of the difficult but most artistic types of interior design.

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Vines are available in an endless variety of size, texture, color, and form, and they can be trained to any shape, line, or curve. Name the decorative purpose your planting should serve, the effect you want to achieve, and take your choice of suitable vines or hanging plants. For dangling down from the edge of an indoor garden or climbing a piece of gnarled driftwood at the back, there are dainties like the creeping fig or the more luxuriant scindapsus. For a big, bold, masculine effect on the wall of a man’s study or a tropical patio, there are a great number of astonishing philodendrons and monsteras. For airy, lacy shadow effects, there are annuals like the canary-bird vine, succulents like the ceropegias.

For filling the bare space between a tall plant and its planter and relating each to the other, use any number of attractive trailers. For shading or screening a porch or patio, choose heavy-textured vines like the Dutchman’s pipe, lighter types like akebia. For evergreen vines of winter beauty, you can have small-leaved euonymous or handsome ivies; for brilliant fall color, parthenocissus or grapevines. There are dwarf vines and giants; vines with waxy foliage, or subdued and velvety; vines with colorful flowers or berries, or both; those that grow rampant or modest and restrained. There are magnificent climbing roses and clematis; exotic passion flowers and bougainvilleas – and all kinds of trailing plants for hanging baskets and wall brackets.

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Walls and fences of all dimensions are erected for any of many reasons – to define property boundaries, to create a center of privacy, to connect two areas or levels, even to break up small areas and make gardens seem larger. Fences can be used in place of trees and shrubs as background for a flower border, with spectacular vines as accent or subdued varieties for subordinate effect. And, of course, there’s nothing like a good-looking fence or wall to obscure unattractive outbuildings, or necessary atrocities like the compost heap.

For fences and walls, again, vines are selected according to available sunlight, moisture, and other cultural considerations – and then according to decorative purpose. If the fence is in itself decorative, the vine should enhance, not smother it. Avoid rampant-growing types and choose, instead, restrained vines with delicacy and charm, and those that can be pruned and trained to shape. For ugly or tottering fences, select a fast, thick covering vine.

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Are you looking to save cash by building a poultry house yourself? Do you want to learn the basics, but are worried that you do not have the DIY skills? Do you think using backyard chicken coop plans could be the answer to all of your problems? Good! This article will help you understand some of the things you should know before getting started.

#1 Keeping The Animals Secure

Keeping the animals comfortable and secure should be your first priority. The best way to do this is to ensure that you reinforce any hatches, openings or hinges with something like wire mesh, as this will deter predators.

#2 Ease of Cleaning

Cleaning a poultry house is not the most exciting job, so it is essential to ensure that it is as easy as possible. Backyard chicken coop plans will help you understand some of the easiest things to do to make it accessible.

One simple tip a lot of owners use is sloping the floor. This allows everything to be extracted from inside easily and also allows it to dry faster as water and cleaning fluids runs off easily.

#3 Plenty of Room

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On a recent trip to Japan I saw a rain chain for the very first time. I had heard about rain chains maybe once or twice before, but I did not knew anyone who had one installed. When I got stuck inside the Tokyo airport waiting for my flight, I used the airport Wi-Fi and hopped onto Google to find some resources about rain chains. Apparently rain chains have been used in Japan for many centuries already. With more people in the Western world trying to get away from standard designs in their backyards, rain chains have slowly found a fan base in the Western hemisphere accordingly.

In a gardening online forum I found people wondering what rain chains were at all. One of the regulars in this forum explained the rain chain as follows: a rain chain is a design and usage alternative to a regular downspout. The downspout is usually the vertical pipe of the rain gutter system and directs the rain water into the main drainage system. A rain chain is a replacement for a downspout. Rain chains have links just like a regular steel chain as an example. However, these links come in different forms and shapes unlike the normal chain link in a steel chain. These links form nice looking chain design from the top of your rain gutter on your home. At the ground level the rain chain reconnects with the normal drainage and the rain water can run off as normal. Some people have found additional usage in a rain chain and use it to fill an underground water tank. Water stored this way can be used in many different ways.

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While building a shed may seem like a fairly straightforward process, you will need to do a little research and planning before you get started. The first thing you need to do is read and understand any building regulations that will apply to your project, because there are certain restrictions on where sheds can be built, and the types of materials that can be used.

After finding out about any regulations, the next thing you will need to do is develop some plans or obtain blueprints for the type of shed you are planning on building. You may be required to show your drafts to the local building inspection agency, but even if they do not need to see your plans, you must put time and effort into drawing up a good design. This will ensure you have a good vision of what you want your finished shed to look like.

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The health of our gardens depends so much on the birds that we should do everything possible to attract them. This may be done with but little effort by planting certain flowers that attract them. Cosmos will bring droves of goldfinches and kinglets all through the summer From the time the first blossoms open the finches will watch for them to go to heed, and they will come every day to inspect the prospective crop.

Sunflowers, either the giant variety, or the dainty fluffy type, will draw a number of birds to feast on the seeds. The list includes nuthatches, titmice, finches, jays and woodpeckers, to name a few at random, and not a seed will be missed, we discover, if by chance we go out to gather a few for planting another year. But seeds are inexpensive, and so we do not begrudge them even the ones we had planned on gathering ourselves.

Stalks of lettuce if allowed to stand will go to seed, which is another inducement for the seed-eaters to watch carefully over the garden, incidentally picking up a myriad of insects from ground, plant, vine and tree.

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Ever wonder how some men can produce fatly blooming roses to romance a woman in the middle of winter? How about countries like Scandinavia where there are endless nights, where do they get their fresh flowers, fresh vegetables? The secret is hydroponics and the use of the HPS grow lights that can mimic sunlight and create a summer effect all year round.

Grow lights are especially useful in the hydroponic system of propagating plants, especially useful to stimulate faster blooming and flowering. Hydroponics is a method of gardening where instead of soil; solutions of mineral nutrient are used. Also, plants that basically need soil in order to grow can now do so by simply making them root into the solutions or into perlites, gravels, mineral wools or even husks of coconuts.

What make HPS grow lights effective indoors is that it gives off more of the yellow and red range similar to sunshine. These are especially effective for the whole life of the plant especially when used with metal halides (MH) light. The HPS also lasts longer at 833.333 days of continuous use than the MH lights. As HPS lights have a tendency to be intense, reflectors and ballasts will be needed to check or contain the emanations and the currents flowing.

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If the high costs of organic vegetables from markets and stores are bothering you, do not buy them. Instead, use your property to grow produce yourself. Try putting in the backyard a vegetable greenhouse.

Having a vegetable greenhouse is beneficial. You will be able to grow food that is healthy and natural and that does not have potentially hazardous substances that some companies use in order for growth. Also, you can choose the things that you want to grow and only grow what you like to eat. Vegetable seeds cost a lot less than buying whole produce from grocery stores. You will save money this way since your food bill will lessen.

If you area interested in pursuing this, there are things to think over. The three greenhouse types are warm, cold, and cool. The warm type is going to require a heating source, which will end up costing some money. Sources include propane, oil, and gas. This greenhouse is perfect for growing all year round.

The colder ones use the sun for heat. This type is not the optimal option since the selection of what can be grown is more limited. The cooler ones are only heated during the cold months and many things can be grown so these are more convenient.

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