Garden almanac

Breaking Winter

Breaking winter this weekend is supposed to get toward 60 degrees Sunday, and I am thinking of spring. Then looked at the forecast for next week, back down to 30 degrees. I guess spring will wait. But here are some things you can do while you wait.

Sitting in the recliner with gardening catalogs coming out now and with a cup of tea is a time-honored winter activity for gardeners. There, you can peruse the hundreds of new veggie and plant varieties for the 2020 growing season. With a few catalogs at the ready, winter becomes a time for dreaming and hoping.

Grab a pencil and paper and actually draw a bird’s-eye view of your garden. You can mark where plants are currently located and where you want to put new varieties. It’s a great exercise for the creatively minded.

There are plenty of houseplants that can provide you with color and texture right now. Some easy specimens include geraniums, crown of the thorns (Euphorbia milii), begonias, streptocarpus, cyclamen, African violets, and countless types of cacti and succulents. My begonias I brought in October have been blooming since coming inside.

Maybe not the most exciting job, but a necessary one. Keep your shovels, forks, clippers, and trowels in shape by making sure they’re clean and any moving parts are well-oiled. This year I am buying bright-orange spray paint and paint the handles. That way, when you’re working outside and lay a tool on the ground, you’ll be able to find it in a jiffy, instead of waiting till the snow melts to find that shovel.

Home Improvement

Let us Start with the Tub with your Bathroom Remodel

Are you updating or adding a bathroom? Let us start with the tub.

A freestanding tub is a bathroom renovation that takes you back to the past if you are used to walk-in showers. Because it is not positioned in a corner or attached to a wall, this kind of bathtub style instantly becomes a focal point and complements to your home while making a stylish design statement. 

Soaking after a long day is the perfect way to close your evening, and a freestanding soaking tub will get you there. Soaker tubs are designed to be deeper and keep water from overflowing during your bath. These tubs should be considered for contemporary and modern bathroom remodeling ideas, and they usually don’t require significant changes to your home plumbing system. Designed with comfort and space in mind, soakers tubs also tend to have therapeutic features like water jets. Consider adding a set of steps and grab bar to walk into your new soaker tub more easily.

Make a statement in your bathroom with a distinctive bathtub material. The most commonly used bathtub materials are acrylic, fiberglass, and plastic. Step up your remodel with a few alternatives for a fresh and unique finish. There are several options available for when you want to step out of your comfort zone, including copper, alcove and wooden bathtub finishes.

A walk-in bathtub usually includes the tub, shower, seating, and steps to the unit. This type of bathtub setup is perfect for your small bathroom or if you need more functional assistance during your bath. This combination can make your life easier every day. Make your walk-in a smart tub with gadgets that control the water temperature and jets. Other bathtub technology options can play music and monitor water use and consumption. 

Shade Trees and Shrubs

Color Palette for your Home

How to create a color palette for your home. Having a defined interior color scheme for your home isn’t as intimidating as it may seem.

The best place to start is with color. More specifically creating a color scheme for your home will ensure that one room ties into the next nicely, even if the style of each room is a little bit different. And, creating an interior color scheme, or color palette for your home will make your decorating choices so much easier because it will narrow the number of choices you have.

But choosing colors for your home can be really overwhelming so you will have to come up with a process that would ensure a unified color palette and would be able to use that decor in more than one room.

Starting with your favorite color means that you won’t be getting sick of it any time soon. Now if your favorite color is cobalt blue then to go paint all of your walls that color, but you can most definitely use it as a starting point.

The point is the color evokes emotion. So, think about places or views that make you feel awesome and start to notice if there are certain colors off that color palette, you can bring into your home that contrast that will give you those same feelings.

99.9% of us aren’t on an unlimited budget which means that we’re always trying to figure out ways to work with what we already have. So, think of things like already existing furniture, cabinetry, countertops, and flooring. Figuring out contrast when looking at these things when choosing paint colors. You want to look at the color and decide if the base color has red, green, blue, brown, or yellow and go with a pasture off that main color. For instance, I have green tile in the kitchen and blue in the bathroom, painting the rest of the upper walls will have to be in contrast with the existing tile.