Outdoor Furniture, Patio Furniture and more!

As I mentioned, this is the perfect time of the year to start feeding the birds; and it’s important to place birdfeeders in spots where they will have shelter from the wind, and refuge from predators.  Although shrubs and trees are ideal, garden structures, such as arbors, trellises, pergolas, and gazebos can do the job as well.  Multi-paneled garden screens will provide good coverage, too, as will gated arbors, and arbors with extensions.

Another alternative is to create a makeshift row of hedges, by getting some planters, and filling them with small evergreens; even artificial ones will work.  You can also use planter trellises, or planter benches with lattice backs.  Anything is better than nothing; in fact, if you’re not going to store your patio furniture in the garden shed during the winter, protect it with some mildew-resistant, easy-to-clean outdoor furniture covers, and let the birds use it to shield themselves from the elements.

As for the birdfeeders, there are many types to choose from, including tube, platform, hopper, fly-through, post-mounted, and hanging.  Whichever you select, make sure that it will keep the food dry, so that it will not become moldy.

When you’re shopping for food, keep in mind that sunflower seeds appeal to the widest variety of birds.  Black-oil sunflower seeds are the favorites, and are enjoyed by every kind of backyard, seed-eating bird.  Their rich oil content makes them a high-energy food, and their thin shells make them easy to crack.  Although striped sunflower seeds are also great, they have heavier shells, which are tough for smaller birds to open.

You can also get sunflower seeds that have been mechanically hulled; and, while they cost a little more, there will be no waste, and no mess.  On the other hand, with in-shell sunflower seeds, the hulls account for up to 45% of the product weight, and will be left lying around on the ground.

Nyjer seeds, which are tiny and black, draw all sorts of finches; and, because of their high oil content, they make wonderful winter food.  Imported from Africa and Southeast Asia, they are slightly expensive; but a bag of them will last awhile.  Moreover, nyjer seeds leave absolutely no waste; and, because they’re steril­ized at all U.S. ports of entry, they will not germinate.  Cracked corn and millet are quite affordable, and will attract many ground-feeding and game birds.

Always read the labels on bags of bird food, and avoid brands that have large amounts of milo (sorghum), wheat, or oats.  Although they may be cheaper, these ingredients are merely fillers, which most birds won’t eat; so, buying products that contain them will be a waste, in more ways than one.

Suet, which is loved by all kinds of birds, comes in an assortment of flavors.  Naturally, birds are wild about nuts, too, particularly peanuts, walnuts, and almonds; and, luckily, these are available in many high-quality bird foods these days.

Of course, you may pay a bit more for these mixes, but, believe me, if you’re nuts about birds, it’s worth it.

Yours Outdoors,

Kathy

Tags: Arbors, birdfeeders, garden shed, garden structures, gated arbors, Gazebos, Outdoor Furniture, patio furniture, Pergolas, Planter Benches, Planters, trellises

With the searing heat that has been baking a large portion of the country for the past few days, many people have been staying indoors more than usual, trying to get relief from fans and air-conditioners.  An unabashed member of that group, I, too have been skipping a lot of my normal outdoor activities during the day.  Furthermore, I refuse to go anywhere that’s not cool (although that’s my year-round policy).

Fortunately, the evenings, though still quite warm, have been tolerable.  In fact, just to get my fill of the outdoors, I have considered sleeping on a lounge chair in my screened gazebo, under the outdoor ceiling fan.  Moreover, I’ve found that other people have thought about, or actually done, similar things.  The other night, as a bunch of us sat around a friend’s picnic table, one of her neighbors announced that she had slept on her swingbed.  After that, somebody else said that a friend of his had spent the past two nights in his backyard hammock.

Nearly everyone I have talked to recently has neglected outdoor chores as well.  It really is amazing how certain weather conditions can change our lifestyles, and throw us off our routines.  Luckily, it’s a temporary situation, as July is one of the busiest months for gardening, and a time when we can ill afford to postpone yard work.  Maybe our lawns can go for awhile without water, because they’ll recover quickly; but flowers and vegetables need attention, especially in areas that haven’t had much rain lately.

Annuals, for example, may be very thirsty now, particularly if they’re newly-planted and trying to establish roots.  Snipping or pinching off spent blossoms is another good way to revitalize plants, and help their roots to grow.  Cutting them back to half their size, and fertilizing them, will give them a second bloom.  If you want to add a dash of panache to dull areas, get some colorful, new plants that are ready to go right from their pots, into the ground.  Transplant and deadhead perennials this month as well.

Container plants, too, can become extremely parched during the summer, and may sometimes require watering twice a day.  They’re worth the extra effort, though, as planters are also ideal for adding pizzazz to the landscape.   Because they can go anywhere, you can put them in garden beds to fill bare spots, arrange them on patios, porches, and gazebos, or line them up along walkways, railings, or steps.  You can also move them around to give them more sun, or shade, when necessary.  To make things even more spectacular, use a variety of planters in several colors and sizes, along with planter trellises and planter benches.

Indeed, there’s much to be accomplished in the garden this month; but it’s more important to take it easy, even in seasonable temperatures.  If you feel that you need a break, just plant yourself in an outdoor chair, under a shady tree, and water yourself thoroughly.

Yours Outdoors,

Kathy

Tags: Gazebos, hammock, lounge chair, outdoor ceiling fan, outdoor chair, picnic table, Planter Benches, planter trellises, screened gazebo, swingbed

Ain’t it always the way?  After months of cold weather and cabin fever, suddenly, there’s an endless list of things to do outdoors; and that would be great, except that now, there’s not enough time to do them all.  Naturally, just as you’re rushing to prepare for summer, and the upcoming holiday that signals its unofficial beginning, it also happens to be one of the busiest months of the year for gardening.

So, besides getting your outdoor furniture, picnic table, patio umbrella, and grill ready, you have to do a lot of yard work, if you want the greenery to make for pleasant scenery at your Memorial Day cookout.

At this point, in most parts of the country, the weather is mild enough to plant nearly anything, except for the most tender perennials, annuals, and vegetables.  Just make sure that the average date of the last frost in your region has passed, before you put tender plants into the ground.  Remember, the soil must be warm and easy to work with, not having too much, or too little, moisture.

Now is a good time to plant lily, dahlia, tuberous begonia, and gladiolus bulbs.  In fact, if you continue to plant a few gladiolus bulbs every week, through the early part of July, you’ll have a steady show of blossoms throughout the summer.

Remove the faded flowers of daffodils and tulips, and give them some fertilizer; but don’t disturb the leaves, which are necessary for the production of next year’s buds.  Pinching about a half-inch off chrysanthemum stems that are over six inches high, will help to make the plants fuller and more prolific.

You can also plant hardy annuals, such as petunias, pansies, snapdragons, and dianthus, as well as primrose, coral bells, candytuft, and most summer-flowering plants, including phlox and daylilies.  Harden off houseplants and seedlings, little by little, by setting them outdoors for increasing amounts of time every day.  Put them in shady spots at first, gradually working up to sunnier places.  Cut back geraniums that have spent the winter inside, and repot them with new soil.  Lightly fertilize perennials as they begin to pop up from the ground.

Bring some extra color and life to your patio, by adding trellises, pergolas, and arbors, and planting climbing flowers, such as roses, clematis, and morning glories, to cover them.  Planters and planter benches full of vivid flowers are spectacular touches as well, and can be moved around to create eye-catching arrangements, seating borders, and centerpieces.  When you go shopping for flowers, choose some in colors that coordinate with your patio furniture, or your outdoor furniture cushions.

If this seems like a lot to do, well, it is; but don’t worry – there’s much more to come.  We haven’t even gotten into dealing with weeds, and the myriad other things that will constantly challenge your efforts to produce and maintain a beautiful garden.  So, actually, this is only the beginning of a never-ending battle!

Yours Outdoors,

Kathy

Tags: Arbors, grill, Outdoor Furniture, outdoor furniture cushions, patio furniture, patio umbrella, Pergolas, picnic table, Planter Benches, Planters, trellises

As the weather warms up, some people are eager to get back outside and start doing some serious gardening, while others would rather spend their time relaxing on their patio chairs, porch swings, and hammocks.  There are also those who would love to be able to produce gardens full of gorgeous flowers, but fear that it’s an unattainable goal.

Sometimes, their trepidation stems from the idea that the talent for nurturing plants is innate, and they simply weren’t lucky enough to be born with it.  In other cases, people think that their schedules are just too hectic, and they could never give a garden the time and effort that it needs.  Then, there are many instances in which people living in apartments, townhouses, or condominiums, feel that they don’t have the room to grow anything.

These concerns, however, are generally unfounded, because virtually anybody can raise a garden.  The thing to remember is that there are all types of gardens; and having one does not necessarily mean that you must cultivate a large plot of land, or even one little flower bed.  No-o!  In fact, you can create one in something as small as a single window box or planter; and that’s why container gardening is becoming one of the most popular pastimes in the country.

Actually, container gardening offers many advantages, including giving you more choices, and more freedom, than the traditional kind.  For example, it allows novices to start small, before deciding whether or not to try full-scale gardening.  It’s also a great way for extremely busy people to get all of the pleasure out of growing beautiful flowers, without having to devote a lot of time to them.  On top of that, it solves the problem of having limited space, because even people with very small terraces, balconies, or decks, can have lovely container gardens.

Furthermore, even a huge garden, or a lavishly landscaped lawn, can be enhanced by strategically-placed flowers, and even small trees, in attractive planters.  They can add color, life, and excitement to porches, patios, decks, and gazebos, and extra height, texture, and interest to garden beds.  They can also be used to brighten up trouble spots that are inhospitable to plants, and dull or empty-looking spaces; and they can easily be moved from place to place.

Moreover, besides having endless varieties of flowers and plants from which to select, you’ll find that there are so many more kinds of planters than there used to be, with options extending not only to the different materials that are available, but to the styles, sizes, and colors.  In addition to the standard plastic, terra cotta, and wood planters, there’s a wonderful assortment of metal, polywood, vinyl, and plastic-coated steel planters, as well as planter tubs, planter benches, and planter trellises.

Whether you use just one container, or a combination of several, you can create a garden that will take your breath away, while breathing new life into the scenery.

Yours Outdoors,

Kathy

Tags: Hammocks, patio chairs, planter, Planter Benches, planter trellises, planters planter tubs, porch swings

While we have recently been discussing the challenges faced by beginning gardeners, that absolutely does not mean that veterans of the soil have it easy.  No-o!  Indeed, Mother Nature incessantly hurls her never-ending arsenal of obstacles into the paths of all who try to cultivate vegetation.  This means everyone, everywhere, and every time; it’s just that, the more experienced you are as a grower, the more likely you will be to know the solution to any particular setback.  Furthermore, she has tons of weapons up her sleeve, and the ones that she unleashes on you will often depend upon the part of the country in which you’re located. 

Over the past several years, however, one big problem that keeps getting bigger for people in specific regions is a serious, consistent lack of rain (I guess you could call it a growing growing problem).  Although periods of dryness are common during the summer in many cities, there are certain areas, sometimes entire states, where severe drought conditions are prevalent year-round. 

The hardest-hit areas are in the west, as residents in some towns in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada are frequently asked, and sometimes ordered, to restrict water usage.  While every municipality imposes its own limits, it’s not unusual to find lawn watering restricted to two days per week in communities where the drought has not reached drastic proportions, and prohibited in places where it has.

If you live in such an area, or if you simply wish to conserve water, the first thing to do is to consider your gardens and yards carefully.  Survey them from different vantage points, such as a porch swing, a garden bench, or a patio chair, and decide which beds or plants are most important to you, and to the overall scheme of the landscape.  

Don’t waste time or water on diseased, ragged, or scraggly plants, or those that have refused to respond to your best efforts; forget about them now, and give them another try when conditions are more favorable.  Give precedence to your established trees and shrubs, no matter what.  

Another option is container gardening.  When you grow flowers in planters, you can more easily control the amount of water that is used, keeping it in the pot, instead of letting it seep into the vast underground.  Just make sure that you don’t over-water, or it will simply leak out the bottom of the planter and be wasted anyway.

You can find a great assortment of colorful, durable planters, plants stands, and planter benches right here at CedarStore.com.  Best of all, you can surf our site for hours, without using a single drop of water.

Yours Outdoors,

Kathy

Tags: planter, Planter Benches, Planters

Below is an interesting read that I came across last week.  At the end, there is a savings for you from CedarStore.com.

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In the green: Gardening industry sees boom as families grow own veggies to save on groceries 

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — With the recession in full swing, many Americans are returning to their roots — literally — cultivating vegetables in their backyards to squeeze every penny out of their food budget.

Sunday March 15, 9:28 pm ET

By Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press Writer

Industry surveys show double-digit growth in the number of home gardeners this year and mail-order companies report such a tremendous demand that some have run out of seeds for basic vegetables such as onions, tomatoes and peppers.

 “People’s home grocery budget got absolutely shredded and now we’ve seen just this dramatic increase in the demand for our vegetable seeds. We’re selling out,” said George Ball, CEO of Burpee Seeds, the largest mail-order seed company in the U.S. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Gardening advocates, who have long struggled to get America grubby, have dubbed the newly planted tracts “recession gardens” and hope to shape the interest into a movement similar to the victory gardens of World War II.

Those gardens, modeled after a White House patch planted by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1943, were intended to inspire self-sufficiency, and at their peak supplied 40 percent of the nation’s fresh produce, said Roger Doiron, founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International.

Doiron and several colleagues are petitioning President Obama to plant a similar garden at the White House as part of his call for a responsible, eco-friendly economic turnaround. Proponents have collected 75,000 signatures on an online petition.

“It’s really part of our history and it’s part of the White House’s history,” Doiron said. “When I found out why it had been done over the course of history and I looked at where we are now, it makes sense again.”

But for many Americans, the appeal of backyard gardening isn’t in its history — it’s in the savings.

The National Gardening Association estimates that a well-maintained vegetable garden yields a $500 average return per year. A study by Burpee Seeds claims that $50 spent on gardening supplies can multiply into $1,250 worth of produce annually.

Doiron spent nine months weighing and recording each vegetable he pulled from his 1,600-square-foot garden outside Portland, Maine. After counting the final winter leaves of Belgian endive, he found he had saved about $2,150 by growing produce for his family of five instead of buying it.

Adriana Martinez, an accountant who reduced her grocery bill to $40 a week by gardening, said there’s peace of mind in knowing where her food comes from. And she said the effort has fostered a sense of community through a neighborhood veggie co-op.

“We’re helping to feed each other and what better time than now?” Martinez said.

A new report by the National Gardening Association predicts a 19 percent increase in home gardening in 2009, based on spring seed sales data and a telephone survey. One-fifth of respondents said they planned to start a food garden this year and more than half said they already were gardening to save on groceries.

Community gardens nationwide are also seeing a surge of interest. The waiting list at the 312-plot Long Beach Community Garden has nearly quadrupled — and no one is leaving, said Lonnie Brundage, who runs the garden’s membership list.

“They’re growing for themselves, but you figure if they can use our community garden year-round they can save $2,000 or $3,000 or $4,000 a year,” she said. “It doesn’t take a lot for it to add up.”

Seed companies say this renaissance has rescued their vegetable business after years of drooping sales. Orders for vegetable seeds have skyrocketed, while orders for ornamental flowers are flat or down, said Richard Chamberlin, president of Harris Seeds in Rochester, N.Y.

Business there has increased 40 percent in the last year, with the most growth among vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes and kitchen herbs that can thrive in small urban plots or patio containers, he said. Harris Seeds recently had to reorder pepper and tomato seeds.

“I think if things were fine, you wouldn’t see people doing this. They’re just too busy,” Chamberlin said. “Gardening for most Americans was a dirty word because it meant work and nobody wanted more work — but that’s changed.”

 Harris Seed’s Web site now gets 40,000 hits a day.

Among larger companies, Burpee saw a 20 percent spike in sales in the last year and started marketing a kit for first-time gardeners called “The Money Garden.” It has sold 15,000 in about two months, said Ball.

A Web-based retailer called MasterGardening.com is selling similar packages, and Park Seed of Greenwood, S.C., is marketing a “Garden for Victory Seed Collection.” Slogan: “Win the war in your own backyard against high supermarket prices and nonlocal produce!”

Cultivators with years of experience worry that home gardeners lured by promises of big savings will burn out when they see the amount of labor required to get dollars from their dirt. The average gardener spends nearly five hours a week grubbing in the dirt and often contends with failure early on, said Bruce Butterfield, a spokesman for The National Gardening Association.

“The one thing you don’t factor into it is the cost of your time and your labor,” he said.

“But even if it’s just a couple of tomato plants in a pot, that’s worth the price of admission.”

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At CedarStore.com, now through March 31 2009, we are offering $25 off Planter Purchase of $150 or more.  Enter code “PLANTER” in the shopping cart.

With planters, planter benches and potting benches from CedarStore.com to help you with your gardening efforts, I am sure you will have one of the most fruitful gardens around!

Shari

Tags: Planter Benches, Planters, potting benches

         We spend a lot of time discussing more popular products, such as gazebos, pergolas and picnic tables.  Today, I want to give some love to a few unique products that you may have never seen, much less considered adding to your backyard or garden design.

          Trees may be beautiful, but they can also limit the space of your backyard design.   A quick solution that several public parks and schools have utilized is a Tree Bench.  The bench wraps around the tree, forming a sitting area for several people.  The tree bench can be made of Cedar, Pine and even Teak.

         Planter Benches are the perfect boundary of any garden.  A pair of planter boxes on each side, help support the bench.  The lattice on the back adds a nice back support and looks great.  In fact, we now offer a double planter bench which forms an “L”.  My son described it as “way cool,” and I agree…like totally way cool! 

As a side note, (and very beneficial to you!), now through March 31st, we are offering $25 off any Planter Purchase of $150 or more!  Enter Promotional Code PLANTER in the shopping cart. 

          We’ve also combined the want for garden benches, porch swings and the want for a wooden arbor.  CedarStore.com has an Imperial Arbor with a garden bench and 4’ porch swing already built in.  And, just for a little decorative “icing on the cake”, we’ve created an arched top, too.  The treated pine arbor is a great center piece to a flower garden, or even a stand alone in your back yard.  Sit with the grand kids, or hide from life while inside the Imperial arbor.  Definitely, my favorite of the little known products!

          If you’re looking for deck furniture, I would recommend a few Adirondack chairs, or perhaps a wall mounted pergola!  We get a lot of questions about being able to attach a pergola to the house, and the answer is a simple: yes.  We’ll talk more about wall mounted pergolas in our future blogs. 

          As always, if you’d like us to address a topic in a future blog, just let us know via email (contact@cedarstore.com) or by leaving a comment.  We’re always happy to discuss a project, or offer our advice.  After twenty years in business, and 10 years online, we’ve seen it all!

Have a great day!

Shari

Tags: Arbors, Pergolas, Planter Benches, Planters, Tree Benches