DIY Projects

Exterior Window Treatments

Window Boxes

Putting up exterior window treatments such as shutters and window boxes can beautify your home while adding some practical benefits. On top of curb appeal (both through flowers and paint colors), awnings and closable shutters can help keep the house cool and shield windows from the elements.

Shutters

Shutters can be functional, especially if you live in a high storm area. But decorative shutters are a quick and inexpensive way to dress up your exterior windows. You can buy premade shutters in a variety of materials at your local home improvement store, or you can easily DIY them as well!

Awnings

Awnings typically manage to work double-duty, adding curb appeal while also filtering the sunlight that comes into your home and protecting your windows from the elements. Traditional cloth awnings come in a variety of sizes and styles, but a wood awning is striking!

Molding and Trim

If you’re still using wood exterior trim boards on your houses, then you know the deal. They’re lightweight and inexpensive, but, like a tuna sandwich, wood does not last long when exposed to the blazing sun and water. A smart alternative is composite molding and trim. While they may look like wood, these products will last until the cows come home. Composite trim may be wood/plastic, cellular PVC, vinyl, or polyurethane. They differ in weight and appearance, but they all boast better weather-resistant qualities than most wood exterior trim products.

Garden Pests

Hackberry Galls

Hackberry psyllids are small aphid-like insects that cause hackberry galls commonly seen on the underside of hackberry tree leaves.  An alternative name is hackberry “gall-maker.”  They are most commonly noticed, however, as a household nuisance in late summer and fall.

Psyllids (pronounced: Sill – ids) are called jumping plant lice.  They resemble miniature cicadas and have powerful hind legs that allow them to jump and fly away quickly.  The hackberry psyllids are 3/16″ long and have lightly colored wings mottled with tiny dark spots.

This species is specific to hackberry trees and does not develop anywhere else.  Adults fly to hackberry trees in early spring and lay eggs in leaf buds.  Eggs hatch into tiny nymphs that stimulate the raised galls or swellings in which the insect lives and feeds for the rest of the summer.  Infested hackberry trees are not harmed by the galls.

When psyllids complete their development in late summer the adults leave the galls to pass the winter.  They normally spend the winter in cracks and crevices of tree bark and other sheltered locations.  However, like many other nuisance pests, they may be attracted to houses in the fall and enter into walls through cracks and gaps around windows or in the siding.  From there they wander on indoors.  This is when they can be a temporary but very aggravating annoyance.  The size of the population and extent of the annoyance varies greatly from year to year.

Psyllids are annoying because of their presence.  They do not feed on humans although some people report that they “pinch” when they land on exposed skin.  They cannot sting and they do not carry disease.  They will not attack pets, house plants, stored products, or furnishings.

Although psyllids can be very annoying, they are harmless and control may not be warranted.  Effective control of adults in late summer and winter is very difficult to achieve.  Household “ant and roach” sprays or dusts have limited effect on this pest.

Preventing psyllids by spraying hackberry trees before gall formation is sometimes suggested.  Several applications of an insecticide would generally be necessary to have a noticeable effect.  Thoroughly spraying large trees is a further complication.  In short, there is little that is practical in the way of hackberry psyllid management other than to tolerate the occasional annoyance.

DIY Projects

Focal Points in a Garden Design

Focal points in a garden design to draw and direct the eye. Think of a garden or your backyard, large or small, that was just a swath of plants. Your eye sweeps along, not knowing where to land. A sense of flow is nice, but without a focus, your garden is not really taken in and studied. It is quickly passed over.

Now think of a garden you saw with a wonderful water feature, a weeping tree or a dramatic ornament.

Small gardens can pose difficulties for creating a focal point. Obviously, you don’t want to sacrifice your entire garden space to one large plant or tree. But focal points can be scaled to the size of your garden. Even the smallest space could have one unique, flamboyant plant that calls attention to itself. Think of tall, orange-leaved cannas or a dwarf conifer design with some stones.

So What Constitutes a Focal Point?

Pretty much any striking feature in your garden:

An unusual specimen (Red Twig Dogwood)

A large, architectural plant (Cimicifuga)

A group of plants (a cluster of astilbe, bleeding heart, and ferns)

A vibrant color (orange canna)

A single white plant

An ornament (Birdbath, gazing globe, statue…)

Large boulders

A dwarf shrub or tree

You don’t have to start your garden design with a focal point, but you don’t want to throw one in as an afterthought. Think about the style of garden you want and the plants you are considering using.

Then list possible features that would complement, yet stand out from your basic design. Some designs lend themselves to the obvious focal point: a ranch garden with a small water feature, a cottage garden with a cement statue, a herb garden with an obelisk.

If you have a preexisting large tree near your garden, that will become a focal point whether you mean to or not. You might want to enhance it with a birdhouse or a flowering vine, like climbing hydrangea.