Posted
on April 15, 2010, 8:09 AM,
by sweetypaula,
under Garden Helpers, how to.
Photo taken by Hayford Peirce
Rhubarb pie is a delicious pie with a main ingredient that’s unfamiliar to a lot of people: a plant called rhubarb. The rhubarb plant actually works well in pies, thus earning the nickname “pie plant.”
Rhubarb pie is especially popular in the British Isles and New England where the rhubarb plant is most common. Its tart flavor is best balanced by adding a lot of sugar. This is also the reason why this particular pie is best served with ice cream.
Rhubarb pies are so easy to make. If you have a garden, why not plant a rhubarb so you can bake this pie any time you want? After all, the best rhubarb pies are those made from freshest rhubarbs handpicked from the garden. Follow this simple recipe from AllRecipes.com. Don’t forget to serve with a scoop of ice cream on top. Enjoy!
Easy Rhubarb Pie Recipe
Ingredients
4 cups rhubarb, chopped
1 1/3 cups sugar
6 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 recipe pastry for a 9-inch double crust pie
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Mix flour and sugar and sprinkle a some of it over the pastry. Add rhubarb and then cover with the remaining flour-sugar combination. Dot with butter and cover with top crust.
3. Place pie in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes after which you will have to reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes.
Getting your garden right takes time, practice, and patience. You might not get it right the first time, and you are going to need to keep trying to hone your gardening skills. Everyone needs a little help getting started, and what better way to start than with these great videos by howdini? They provide a great insight on how to “weed out” the bad parts of your garden and how to start up an organic garden if you are interested. Just check out the videos for yourself and get ready to embark on an awesome gardening adventure!
Posted
on April 13, 2010, 1:44 PM,
by danielrouse,
under Lawn care.
When it comes to lawn care, too much water can be a bad thing. Weeds, bugs, and diseases are on the list of things that homeowners worry about when it comes to their yards, but over-watering is often an overlooked and preventable problem that can plague a lawn.
In most cases, over-watering is a result of having the sprinkler system on when it rains. It sounds silly, but it is something that people do to their lawns all the time. It is for this reason that many people add a rain sensor to their existing system. The device itself is rather simple: when it rains, the sensor ensures that the sprinkler system does not come on. That way, mother nature is watering your lawn instead of you.
Installing the device is also an easy task. The important part is to make sure the sensor is placed in an area free of obstructions. If a branch or a part of your roof is blocking rain from getting to the sensor, it will never know to turn off the sprinkler system. A common place to install one is on a fence, but it really doesn’t matter as long as the rain can get to it. After that, it’s just a few small wires to connect and you are done! Then you no longer have to worry about over-watering.
Doing landscaping remodeling on your lovely backyard can be challenging. You have to carefully look for trees, plants, flowers and even ornaments that will perfectly blend with the type of exterior ambiance you desire.
One great choice of tree is the Muskogee Crape Myrtle Tree. Let your visitors and passersby be dazzled with the extraordinary purple bloom that adds vibrancy to your backyard for up to an incredible 120 days. That means you could be enjoying its wonderful blooms for four months. Truly astounding!
These pretty purples not only add beauty to your exterior home, but you can also use their blooms as internal ornaments. Simply cut the flowers and arrange them in a nice vase, and you can enjoy the lively aura your new bouquet will give off.
You don’t have to wait for longer growing time before you enjoy the abundance of these trees as a Muskogee Myrtle tree is one of the fastest-growing crapes. It has the ability to grow 5 feet in a year’s time.
These are perfect for sunny backyards as they grow fast in full sun. These crapes easily adapt to many sorts of soil conditions and environments, and they can survive in long dry seasons. Spraying is not really required as Muskogee myrtles are highly mildew resistant.
Posted
on April 12, 2010, 3:08 PM,
by danielrouse,
under Gardening Tips.
Growing a plentiful batch of raspberries isn’t easy. Sure, anyone can plant some seeds into the ground and water them, but it takes a real expert to grow them to a good crop. Still, raspberries are some of the best tasting berries around, and many people would like to have a small patch growing in their backyard. This video can help you learn the tips and talents necessary to cultivate raspberries of your own!
Sponsored by Scenic Landscaping
The Royal Empress tree is both beautiful and unique. This tree is known for growing at an alarming rate and has annoyed many gardeners who have planted it without this knowledge. It has the tendency to become overbearing, but it yields beautiful results in the many flowers that bloom from it. The Royal Empress can grow almost an inch daily during the spring and has been known to grow just as rapidly in the summer as well. Its leaves can grow to be up to a foot long and provide a nice breezy canopy to sit under during summer months.
What is great about this tree is its ability to grow anywhere. It is very drought-friendly and has a strong resistance to insects and natural disease. Is your soil lacking? No problem! The Royal Empress can also grow in nearly any soil situation, even toxic soil! The benefits this tree provide to the environment are amazing as well. The large leaves will pull toxins out of the air and filter them out through its bark and branches.
If you are looking for a great tree that provides privacy, looks great, and requires a little maintenance, look no further than the Royal Empress Tree.
Dreaming of living in Paradise Turning your backyard into your dream paradise is much more than digging out up a few old shrubs and growing some new flowers and daises. It takes a green thumb and the magic of great landscaping to materialize the paradise of your dreams.
Remodeling the exterior of your home, including the backyard, can create wide-ranging positive effects on you and your home. The new flowers, shrubs, trees and ornamental embellishments (such as ponds with fountains or artistically-styled walls) will create beauty, health and an optimistic aura that gives ultimate relaxation to you and your visitors.
Remodeling greatly boosts the curb appeal of your place and augments the value of your home. However, before doing so you should consider your financial capabilities. You may try to look at some wonderful offers like 10% off on great landscaping that may help you with your budget.
Most importantly, landscaping remodeling can offer added enjoyment to you. From the planning and coordinating of the design and layout of your choice, you may suggest and select your own favorite plants, trimmings and decorations. Though the landscaper (and his or her green thumb) will probably do the bulk of the actual work, at least you will have contributed toward realizing your own paradise. If you want to feel like a wood nymph by having a waterfall and small pond installed within your backyard, a great landscaper will do it just right for you. If butterflies turn your gloomy mood into a sunny smile, go for bright flowers that would attract colorful butterflies. The choices are boundless, and the decision is up to you. Finally, the end product of your remodeling will truly afford priceless joy and contentment.
Posted
on April 8, 2010, 10:45 AM,
by clivetsy,
under Uncategorized.
Designing a landscape can be a tough challenge, especially if you aren’t sure what flowers will coordinate with other flowers. Before you start picking out flowers, keep a few things in mind: First, find out if the area is full sun, full sun/partial shade or shade all day. Second, know what planting zone you’re located in so plants will thrive and blossom to their full potential. If a flower is only meant for warm areas, planting it where weather reaches below freezing will not allow the plant to come back year after year. That said, here are some great blossoms that will work well in any garden and complement other flowers, as well.
Tree Hydrangea is a breathtaking ornamental tree. Pair this tree up with Sweet Pea and Snow in Summer for a wave of pinks, whites and purples.
Astilbe (full sun if kept watered), hardy gladiolas and dahlias will create texture and full punches of color.
Use Gladioulus (need to be lifted in colder climates) as a backdrop, Blazing Stars as an accent and Asiatic Lilies for a superb look.
When all else fails, make a huge flower bed full of all types of lilies. Keeping the same family of flowers with different species and colors creates harmony.
Another great hint to a beautiful, fail-free flower garden is to stick to the same color scheme throughout. Also, using reds, yellows and whites together will create a good vibe. Don’t fret about the nitty gritty of what flowers to pick or what the final result will look like. As long as you feel good inside each year when the flowers bloom, that is all that matters.
Sponsored by Scenic Landscaping
Don t be fooled by this stone walkway s charming weathered look; it s actually a recent addition to a once-neglected Fair Lawn backyard. When we started, there was just a steep slope going into a lawn that was overgrown with brush and ivy, says Mike Kukol of Horizon Landscape & Irrigation Company in Wyckoff. And with no clear path through the overgrowth, the only usable land was a 5-foot-wide swath at the top of the hill.
After sprucing up the yard with lush green grass, Kukol added the steps, made of natural quarried stone from Pennsylvania, to make it easy to walk down the hill. An adjacent garden area featuring two natural rock walls spanning more than 50 feet serves to further beautify the area.
The garden also contains rhododendron, astilbe,
heuchera, columbines and itea plants that thrive in the shade. When planting around a walkway, it s important to consider sun exposure, says Kukol. Working with a sunnier spot Kukol recommends planting ajuga, juniper, dianthus and black-eyed Susans.
Furniture is being moved, not upstairs or to the family room, but outside! Already prevalent on the West coast, this landscaping trend has migrated here to the East as more and more homeowners discover the joys and convenience of entertaining outdoors. They’re spurred in part by the growing number of products, once typically used only for interiors, being designed with outdoor living in mind. Today,rooms that are inside your home are also being created for outside living. For example, an outdoor kitchen can be designed fully equipped with a BBQ, refrigerator, kegerator, wine cooler, sink, TV, or even a stereo system. Outdoor fireplaces and fire pits have also joined the trend. After all, who wouldn’t love to gather around an inviting backyard fire while enjoying a glass of wine and discussing the day’s news with family and friends? If the thought of chilling and basking in all the comforts of outdoor luxury sounds tempting, sit back and take a visual tour of some of the landscape scenes created for area residents by the service professionals at Scenic Landscaping. They might just spur your imagination and desire to create an outdoor oasis for your own heavenly home retreat.
Sponsored by Scenic Landscaping
