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Creating a new patio or refurbishing an already existing one doesn’t have to result in something boring. Pavers offer you a colorful opportunity to create something new that will have all your neighbors and friends waiting for an invite to one of your backyard parties. The concrete pavers available today come in a dizzying array of patterns, styles and colors making it possible to find a design that is perfect for your desires and backyard.

I ran into a well written piece this morning titled Concrete Pavers Offer Deck Alternatives that I think you will find worth the time to read. Below is a small excerpt.

“There are also lots of colors available, especially in the earth tones. You can stick with a single color or you can blend complementary tones. If you want, you can also use contrasting colors to create a pattern within a pattern, such as a big sundial in the middle of the patio. It’s all up to your imagination!

Once you’ve made your decision, the dealer can help you determine the number of pavers needed for your specific area and the pattern you’ve selected, and will arrange delivery to your site.”

And over at the patch I caught sight of an article titled End of Summer Gardening Tips, check it out

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We won’t know if all the scurrying around by state officials in NY and NJ will prove to be a series of smart moves or a huge waste of resources and undo fear rattling till hurricane Irene passes by. One thing for sure if nothing was done and it turns out that this storm does damage in those two states the Mayor of NYC and the Governor on NJ would have been run out of office on a rail.

I’m not sure what officials here in NH and across the border in VT are doing to get ready for all the rain and high winds being forecast but I’m sure they have crews on-alert. About all we can do on our own is to make sure we have extra water put aside and some food that does not require cooking or refrigeration, we all know many in New England will lose power for many hours as the storm passes through.

On a brighter note, this morning I ran across an article titled  Sonoma Garden A Showcase detailing how a community center reduced their water bills by 70% by rethinking their lawns and plantings. Here’s an excerpt.

“Today, the huge bills and the thirsty lawn are gone, replaced by a garden designed to use 70percent less water by introducing drought-tolerant native plants and efficient irrigation. The garden doesn’t just save water, it’s also sustainable, intended to have little long-term effect on the environment.”  Read the whole article Sonoma Garden A Showcase.  

Have a great and safe weekend everybody.

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The smell of autumn was in the air when I ventured outside this morning and as well all say every year at this time, wow summer went by really quickly. Of course we still have months of good weather so don’t get into a tizzy and start polishing your snow blower just yet.

I ran across a short piece this morning titled Be Proactive In Your Garden and with the time fast approaching to put our gardens to bed for the winter it is a good reminder.

“Proactive gardening is simply doing the important things to ensure the health of your garden before you see a problem. It’s providing the best growing environment, including sunlight, great soil and putting the right plant in the right place. It’s spacing your plants appropriately for air circulation and sunlight; it’s watering properly and using plenty of mulch.”

And staying with the theme of auttumn I ran across a great piece about indoor gardening that is avaialbe in Michagan. It seems that the county is offering rasied plots in their 30,000 sg foot greenhouse allowing you to grow veggies and plants all through the cold weather.. Now is this a good idea or what.

“Oakland County is now providing an option for gardeners who want to continue growing plants and veggies through the cold winter months. They’ve got 30,000 square feet of prime greenhouse space in Waterford and it is all up for grabs.“  Green Thumbs Can Toil In The Soil This Winter.

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I came across a story from Minnesota that I thought I would share on this blog. It is easy to get so caught up in our day to day chores and lives that we forget about our neighbors and the country as a whole. Next month will mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and all around the country there will be events to commemorate that day in our history.Thousands of public and private memorials dot the landscape of the country just like the one in the picture from an auto lot in Greenwich.

People in one town in Minnesota are busily creating a memorial park to all those who lost their lives on 9/11. The story of that effort is titled From Rubble To Remembrance (click the title to read) and includes a short video showing the work these people are putting into building this memorial park

“In this corner of southwest Minnesota a 9/11 memorial park made out of pavers andconcrete is scheduled to be unveiled on the tenth anniversary of the attacks, it’s been in the works ever since Schafer made the trip out to ground zero shortly after the twin towers came tumbling down.

“We’d never really tried to even measure or think about an incident that large and so we were concerned, are we ready? So, we wanted to do a lessons learned with the folks at ground zero,” Schafer said. ”

I’m sure we all want to thank everyone across the country that are expending effort to build memorials that commemorate 9/11. This memorial park includes a paver with a star painted on it for each of those who lost their life on that day as well as those members of the town who served in the resulting wars and did not return to their families.

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Choices for the look of your walkway or patio have never been as abundant as they are right now. There are dozens and dozens of different textures and colors and textures to choose from when you are looking at pavers. And pavers have never been easier to install for the do-it-yourself homeowner, there are a multitude of how-to videos that are produced by the manufactures along with great entries from homeowners themselves and cable stations like the DIY network.

Once you have that dream walkway, patio or garden area done and it has been exposed to the weather for a number of cold New England winters even using the strongest and best made pavers there is bound to be a need for some maintenance. Tom Phelan has written a good primer on repairing your paver installation titled Resurrecting fallen walkway pavers.

“Once you have removed all the stones from the reconstruction area, you will need to spread a new layer of sand, and level it to receive the stones once again. The level of the sand must be slightly high, because it will be compressed during the reinstallation process. To level the sand, cut a screed board with notches at each end. The notched ends will rest on the stable pavers. The depth of the center of the screed should be about 1/8” less than the thickness of the paver. Fill in the low areas, level with the screed board, tamp, and repeat until you feel you have a level, firm base.”

A little TLC can go along way in keeping your paver installation looking great for decades or even longer. If you have a great tip about pavers please leave a comment below…

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A Bonsai tree is not really a particular species of tree, rather it just means a small tree or plant. The Bonsai is a traditional Japanese planting that many people love. The reason I’m writing about this today is that I came across an article in the Northampton Chronicle (UK) that lays out the procedure to start your own voyage into the art of the Bonsai plantings.

Northampton Garden Centre’s (UK) Lee Whitestone shares a wealth of information about Bonsai plantings in her article titled How To Grow A Bonsai Tree.

What do Tomatoes, Sweet Peppers and Arugula have in common? They belong to a group of vegetables that according to some people are worth your time and effort to grow because you get a positive return on your investment (ROI).  When you take into account the time, water and land you have to invest into a vegetable garden you may find some veggies are much cheaper at farmers markets or in your neighborhood store.

Of course I’m not talking about the intangibles of fun and satisfaction that you gain from growing your own produce, those are to quote a well know advertising campaign “priceless.” For many putting the time and energy into a vegetable garden is the reward itself and the harvest of ripe and succulent veggies is frosting on the cake and not the only reason for the effort. At WalletPop, Sarah Gilbert writes about ROI in an article titled Garden Crops That Make Financial Sense. Check it out.

To most vegetable gardeners saying a plant does not have a positive ROI is like telling a Bonsai lover that their time and effort does not make sense because you’ll never be able to chop a Bonsai Tree into firewood to sell or keep you home warm. This way of thinking misses the point entirely.

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It’s looking like we are in for an extend period this week where the temperatures will hover in the mid nineties and above during the day. It’s time to make sure that the ice cube trays are filled, gallons of lemonade are chilled and at the ready for every thirsty landscaper and gardener and each and every air conditioner is working at its peak.

I ran across an article this morning from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that I thought I would share with everyone out there in the landscaping world. The author Paul Rogers writes that for gardeners there are two good times to sit down and read a good gardening book. The two times he sites are the Winter and when the hot weather makes working outside uncomfortable or even dangerous. You can read his recommendations here in the article titled Summer Reading List for Gardeners and leave a comment after you check it out.

At BND.com I ran across an article talking about a demonstration garden in Illinois, “Its purpose is to show people what plants can be easily grown in this area to beautify yards, landscape businesses and attract bees and butterflies.”  When it comes to something like landscaping and gardening nothing works like a demonstration of the real thing. The article is titled Taking Care of Creation, Master Gardeners Show How It’s Done.

At PRO Landscape Supply we also believe that showing you how things might look in your landscaping project can be really helpful, that’s why we have a huge garden of pavers installed for you to walk around and look at. Stop on by and take a leisurely stroll to check out many of the designs and colors that we offer.

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I saw an interesting story this morning over at the San Francisco Chronicle talking about how as part of a recovery program teens are asked to volunteer to work in the organic gardens at the center where they reside. “In addition to contributing to a healthy diet, gardening gets teens outdoors and involved in a hands-on activity. Surrounded by the peacefulness of nature, the garden can be a meditative place to relax in between therapy sessions, educational lectures and 12-Step meetings. It also introduces teens to various recovery concepts and builds their confidence.” To those of us who love gardening and landscaping it comes as no surprise that working in a garden can have huge benefits to how these troubled teens view themselves and the world around them. Good luck to all of them.

Another story about getting kids involved in gardening comes from the Northampton Chronicle in the UK. It seems that their idea center around getting kids to visit and get involved with the gardening movement at an early age. “The youngsters learn about the different parts of the plants that get eaten whether it is the flower of a cauliflower, the stem of some celery or the root of a carrot. And they have a tasting session to really get the idea.”  In addition to getting more people involved the food grown is distributed locally to those in need, seems to me it’s a win all around for this project and who knows how many bright and creative landscaping minds will be sparked by their time spend at the community gardens.

And finally today I saw that in Antioch, Illinois they just dedicated more space to expand the community gardens for residents. For just 25.00 you get the rights to grow veggies and flowers in a 10×12 foot plot of land. The town trustees are thinking of expanding the number of plots next year from the current twenty because of demand. Besides the obvious benefit to the community of civic pride and neighborliness people in the project will be giving some of the produce to a local project to help families that are in need.

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I came across an interesting article this morning in the Seattle Times titled No Space For Plants. The story is a well written primer on vertical gardening and very friendly to all levels of expertise. I’ve always loved vines and flowers that cover brick walls, it seems to bring a serenity into the yard that was not there before the plantings matured.

Here’s an excerpt from this story “The trendiest vertical gardening technique is living walls — fences, patio walls or other surfaces covered in plants, flowers, succulents, even fruits and vegetables.”

I like the idea of living walls, growing up I always liked how some of my neighbors used trellises covered in vines and flowers to mark out different areas of the yard. The trellis were kind of magical portals into places like the vegetable garden, the pool, the yard itself and even the gardening shed had a trellis covered in green. But you don’t need to erect a trellis in order to create a vertical garden, you can use almost any vertical surface in your yard.

On another note, I came across this video about the University of Maine’s gardening program. The gardens are open to the public. So if you are traveling to Maine this summer check out the U of Maine in Orono.