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5 Ways to Add Privacy to Your Patio or Balcony
Your home’s interior can offer you peace of mind, but there’s nothing like the connection between your patio and the great outdoors. With a little privacy, you can relax and unwind at home like never before. Here are five creative tips to add privacy to your patio or balcony and turn into your own personal retreat.
5 Ways to Add Privacy to Your Patio or Balcony
1. Vertical Gardening
Incorporating nature into your outdoor space will not only help you make it more private, but it will also help bring the space to life with an organic touch. Vertical gardens will liven up your patio while making it more secluded. Choose plants that thrive in your local climate and complement your home décor style.
2. Install a Pergola or Canopy
Looking to make your backyard a bit more exclusive while providing some shade? A pergola or canopy will do the trick. This versatile choice is also fitting for any homeowners who like to entertain and want to extend their parties to the outdoors. To set up, pick a central space on your patio for your pergola that won’t interrupt the flow of foot traffic. These furnishings may be the missing piece for your backyard retreat; they will protect you from the elements year-round while maintaining that open-air feeling you’re looking for.
Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: Kristin Mitchell
3. Privacy Screens
Your patio privacy project will lead you toward some creative decorative opportunities. Privacy screens work like a fence for your home, in that they help to enclose your property from your neighbors. However, unlike a fence, they are easy to move around and come in various styles and materials to match your taste in outdoor décor. Typically made of vinyl, metal, wood (bamboo is a popular choice), and artificial greenery, these products may be just what you’re looking for to frame your private patio area.
4. Planters
You can create a barrier and refresh your backyard or balcony patio aesthetics at the same time with planters filled with tall plants. If you’re willing to wait, trees and vining plants can grow into lush fences over time. If you’re hoping for a quicker solution, consider lifted planters with mature bushes or hang planters with plants that cascade down. How to Create a Balcony Garden
Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: vm
5. Outdoor Curtains and Art
Finding the right items to hang will help create the backyard oasis you’re dreaming of. For those with a vertical structure in the backyard like a pergola or gazebo, or a balcony that can hold a tension rod, consider adding outdoor curtains for some elegance and privacy. For a more personalize approach, a gallery wall can also help keep the creative juices flowing outdoors while connecting the space to the inside of the house. Search for weather-resistant frames that will hold up as the seasons change and hang them on sturdy strings or repurpose a room divider. How to Create a Gallery Wall at Home
With a dash of décor, some elements of nature, and your own personal design touch, you’ll create the outdoor space you’ve always wanted. No matter how much we love our interior, it’s nice to get outside and breathe some fresh air while still feeling like you’re at home. Get more tips on how to transform your home here:
Landscaping Tips That Can Increase Your Home’s Value
Featured Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: KatarzynaBialasiewicz
7 Tips for Sustainable Living at Home
There’s always room for improvement in a household’s quest to go green. From how you use your appliances to the way you consume and dispose of food, every lifestyle choice you make at home presents an opportunity to be more eco-friendly. Adopting more sustainable practices has obvious environmental benefits and helps to improve quality of life, but it can also increase your home value and in some cases may generate extra cash.
7 Tips for Sustainable Living at Home
1. Create a Sustainable Kitchen
The kitchen is responsible for a decent portion of your home’s energy output. Choosing energy-efficient appliances can help to improve your household’s sustainability by using less energy. Reusable materials go a long way in the kitchen as well. Even seemingly small changes like switching from single use to reusable grocery bags and eliminating paper towels can make an impact. Using natural cleaning products will keep your kitchen cleaner longer while improving your home’s air quality, and being mindful about water usage can save on utility bills.
2. Plant an Herb Garden
To further improve your home’s sustainability, consider planting an herb garden. This helps to cut down on repeatedly buying spices and seasonings at the grocery store while cultivating a natural ambience in your home. (And they’re fun to cook with, too!) Do indoor plants need sunlight? Of course, so be sure to position your indoor garden in an area where your plants have direct access. Once you’ve picked out a spot, decide which herbs you’d like to grow. Some of the most common herbs are easy to grow and will pair well with whatever’s on the menu—basil, thyme, cilantro, parsley, oregano, etc.
3. Tips for a More Energy Efficient Home
The first step in becoming more energy efficient at home is understanding your energy output. Once you understand your household’s habits, you can identify which cutbacks will help you chart a more sustainable path forward. Energy-efficient lightbulbs can help you save on utility bills. Because they use less energy that standard lightbulbs, they typically last longer as well. Make sure your home is properly insulated and your windows’ caulking and weatherstripping is in good condition. Air leaks and poor insulation waste energy and will cause spikes in your utility bills.
Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: Nattakorn Maneerat
4. Reduce Waste at Home
Every household produces some sort of waste, but it’s how that waste is treated that makes all the difference for the environment. Clean your recycling to make it easier to process and do your best to only buy what you plan to eat. Start a compost bin for extra food scraps or consider other agricultural solutions for disposing of it. Consider buying items like shampoo, conditioner, moisturizers, and the like in bulk to cut down on packaging waste. Reusable glass containers or jars will help you portion out meals and provide a useful way to store bulk items like rice and beans.
5. Use Solar Energy
Yes, making the switch to solar energy comes with significant upfront costs. But an investment in solar is not just an investment in the health of the planet, it can increase your home value as well. The energy savings you’ll generate in the long-term will depend on your household’s level of consumption and the power generated by your solar panels. And if you’re generating more power than you’re consuming, you may be able to sell the surplus energy back to the grid. For more information on solar-based incentives and tax breaks by state, visit DSIRE (Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency®).
Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: ArtistGNDphotography
6. Sustainable Gardening Best Practices
Even for the green thumbs, there’s opportunity to go greener at home. A garden is only as healthy as its soil. Mulching is vital to soil health and helps to reduce weed growth. Animal manure also has the power to enrich garden soil, both as a fertilizer and conditioner. Organic weed killers made with natural ingredients will maintain your garden’s health while keeping unwanted weeds at bay. Apply this same organic mindset to dealing with slugs as well. Certain types of slug bait may possess certain chemicals that do more harm than good, especially if you have farm animals on your property like chickens or goats.
7. Sustainable Laundry Room Tips
Before you begin your next cycle in the laundry room, consider some methods of reducing energy. Because the heating of water is responsible for a majority of the energy generated by doing laundry, using cold water can help you save on energy costs. Cold water is also gentler on clothing. Clean the dryer vent and filter regularly to keep it unclogged and running efficiently. Consider hang-drying when possible, and in warmer months, air dry your clothes to save a dryer cycle.
For more information on sustainable living, helpful advice on home upgrades, plus tips on DIY home projects and more, visit the Living section of our blog.
Featured Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: monkeybusinessimages
Decorating with House Plants to Match Your Décor Style
Interior design solutions come in all shapes and sizes. After all your furniture items, art, and other physical items are all in their right place, decorating with house plants can provide the perfect final touch. The best plants for your home are the ones that will thrive in your local climate while complementing your existing décor. Here are a few common house plants and their corresponding interior design styles to aid your decorating efforts.
Decorating with House Plants to Match Your Décor Style
Mid-Century Modern
Mid-century modern interior design is ubiquitous, and for good reason. Its simple concepts, open spacing, and emphasis on natural elements make it one of the premier interior design styles for homeowners and design experts alike. A Split-Leaf Philodendron, or “Swiss cheese plant,” is ideally suited for these interior spaces, and its signature leaf holes make it a visual focal point. Swiss cheese plants will thrive in open spaces with access to natural light, climbing toward the ceiling as space allows. For the same reasons, Fiddle-Leaf Figs feel at home in a mid-century modern aesthetic.
Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: funebre
Industrial
There’s an inherent give and take with industrial interior design in that it foregoes traditional elements that we associate with comfort for stylistic choices that create a strict-yet-visually appealing environment. Decorating with house plants can add vibrance to an industrial backdrop of wood, steel, brick, stone, and copper without compromising the edginess of the style. Both Snake Plants and Cast Iron Plants will harmonize with an Industrial space. Both are low-maintenance plants that mesh well with materials that evoke toughness and durability.
Minimalist
The combination of minimalism and house plants is a match made in heaven. Given minimalism’s focus on the reduction of waste and clutter and the importance of bringing the outdoors in, all signs point toward decorating with house plants. Being selective about which plants you include will keep everything in line with the fundamental concepts of minimalism—too many plants and things would easily feel off balance. Large-leaf plants are a perfect solution for minimalist decorators, such as Rubber Plants, Bird of Paradise, and Silver Evergreen.
Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: Liudmila Chernetska
Farmhouse
The Farmhouse interior style prioritizes cleanliness and an inviting spirit. Its white-washed backdrop of whites, grays, and beiges makes it a fitting canvas for the lush green additions that a selection of house plants can provide. Spider Plants work well to fill shelf space, which come in both solid green and white-striped varieties. These plants are easy to take care of and thrive in partial sun or shade. Aloe Vera plants in the kitchen can refresh the look of your shelving or counter space.
Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: xavierarnau
Traditional
Homeowners with traditionally styled interiors have a whole host of options to choose from. Any classic plant species will complement its traditional surroundings, but more specific choices can bring out the uniqueness in your home. If your decorations are rife with patterns and geometric shapes, perhaps a fern or Amazon Lily would help to balance the room. Bamboo may be a natural fit for your home depending on your existing décor. If you’re looking for a hanging display to fill empty wall space, consider Devil’s Ivy.
As always, research the watering and sunlight needs of a house plant before bringing it into your home. For more on decorating with house plants, be sure to read our room-by-room guide:
The Best Indoor Plants for Every Room
Featured Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: Tanya Paton
Springtime Gardening Tips by Region
This time of year, there is much to be done in the garden. Whether you tend to a few veggie plants, have a sprawling urban farm, or tend to a flourishing, flowering sanctuary, spring is a critical time of the year to focus on the health of your garden to keep it fertile heading into summer. Geography and climate play a large role in what a garden needs at different times throughout the year. The following information will help you build out your springtime gardening to-do list depending on where you live. But first, here are a few tips that apply to gardeners of all regions and climates.
Gardening During Spring
Weeding
No matter where you live, weeds can be an issue for your garden. By carving out some time to weed your flower beds and garden in spring, you’ll be ahead of the curve when summer comes around. Use this time to check for any infestations or fungi growing on your plants and flowers.
Watering
Water is the lifeblood of a healthy garden. Keeping your plants and flowers irrigated is paramount, especially so in the spring, since proper watering now will have your garden in top shape as the months get warmer and drier. For plants that require significant watering, place saucers under their pots to catch the excess.
Mulching
Spring is a great time of year to mulch your garden. Mulch helps to keep your soil moisturized when temperatures rise, keeps weeds at bay, and enriches your soil with organic matter.
Clean Your Water Features
Throughout the warmer months of the year, ponds, bird baths, and other water features become a magnet for rapid algae growth. Clean your water filters and remove decaying leaves to keep them clean and algae-free.
Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: Jurgute
Springtime Gardening Tips by Region
Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwesterners can expect to continue to divide perennials while it is still wet out. Once the sun becomes more consistent in late spring, it’s time to transfer any plants you seeded indoors to the outdoors. This time of year brings more sun breaks, which, combined with steady rain, creates rich gardening conditions. Deadhead your rose bushes of any old blooms and begin seeding your annuals.
Northern California
By April, gardeners in Northern California can begin to plant warm-season plants and fertilize perennials. With sunny and dry days dominating the weather pattern, temperatures will begin to rise. Accordingly, it’s important to check your sprinkler and irrigation systems and make repairs/replacements as needed before it gets hot. Check for signs of fungal diseases or evidence of insects throughout the garden before their damage spreads.
Southern California
As the days get hotter in Southern California, gardeners can plant tropical plants and perennials outdoors. This is a great time of year to check whether you have substantial mulch around the base of your plants and trees and add as necessary. If you plan to grow tomato plants, potatoes, or bell peppers, they should be planted by mid-spring.
Southwest
Southwesterners should fertilize their perennials and plant warm-season plants in early spring. When adding mulch, be mindful of your garden’s mulching limit. Adding too much can make it difficult for plants to push up through the ground. Given the fact that this climate typically experiences very few rainy days in mid-Spring and beyond, it’s the right time to plant palm trees and cacti. It’s also the right time of year to give your sprinklers and irrigation system a complete checkup.
Mountain West
There is a bit of waiting game with springtime gardening in the Mountain West, but once the snow has melted, the green thumbs have the green light to get out in the garden. Plant fruit trees and strawberries once it has begun to warm up in April and spread compost around the garden to help reduce weeds and enrich the soil. Once frost is a thing of the past, turn on your irrigation system and check for any leaks. Early May is usually a good time of year to begin planting your vegetable garden.
For more tips on working out in the garden, read our guide to sustainable gardening:
A Quick Guide to Urban Farming
Urban farming can be a fun way to produce your own nutritious and sustainable food supply for your household while learning about self-sufficiency and gardening. Though urban farming likely won’t replace your household’s entire food intake, it is an environmentally friendly complement that can help lower your reliance upon commercial grocery stores over time.
A Quick Guide to Urban Farming
What is urban farming?
Urban farming or urban agriculture comes in many forms. Whether it’s a backyard or rooftop garden, a community agricultural space, or a small balcony plot, urban farming is the practice of cultivating food by those who live in cities or densely populated areas. Typically using raised garden beds to house produce, urban farming promotes sustainability, health, and a connection to nature. Whether you’re looking to grow a few simple fruits and vegetables or seek to cultivate a flourishing garden, here’s how you can get started.
Plot Out Your Garden
Whether you have a spacious backyard waiting to be tilled into gardening heaven or a smaller, unused section of your flower beds, how much space you’re working with will determine the arrangement of your urban farm. Research the crops you intend to plant and how much space they require, then take measurements in your gardening space before buying materials. Your raised gardening beds should be anywhere from six to thirty-six inches deep. Keeping them less than four feet wide will make it easier to reach across when watering, weeding, and planting.
Planting Your Garden
Once you’ve plotted out your garden space, there are a series of decisions to make about your garden; namely which crops you want to grow, how you’ll pot other plants and flowers, whether you’re going to start from seeds or seedlings, and deciding between manual and automatic watering. If you’re starting from seeds, know that the growing process will take longer, whereas seedlings can help to speed things up. Creating an automatic watering system requires an upfront investment, but you’ll save time, and you won’t have worry about under-watering or dehydrating your garden.
Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: FatCamera
Raising Chickens and Keeping Bees
Keeping animals on your property presents new opportunities for sustenance, but it also introduces new challenges. Two animals urban farmers often choose to raise are chickens and bees, which take up a lot less space that other livestock. Before starting either venture, check your local zoning laws.
If you intend to raise chickens, you’ll need to build a coop first. The size of your chicken coop will depend on whether your chickens are able to forage outside the coop or not. If you have the space to let the chickens out, allow two to three square feet per bird in the coop. If the chickens must stay in the coop, you’ll want to make sure they have plenty of space, so it’s recommended to allow five to ten square feet per bird.
Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: KseniaShestakova
The key features of a chicken coop include roosts, nest boxes, dust baths, lighting, and protection from local predators. Search online or locally for pre-made chicken coops that fit your property’s needs or make it a DIY project. A commercial poultry feed will provide your chickens with the basic nutrients they need, but keep in mind that many foods outside of their normal diet can alter egg flavor and have adverse health effects. So, if you’re thinking about incorporating table scraps into their diet, make sure those foods agree with their systems before doing so.
To keep bees at home, start by reaching out to local beekeeping associations to inquire about purchasing bees and when you can expect your colony to arrive. Once you have a timeline set, you can go about gathering supplies. There are two common hive systems used for keeping bees: a Langstroth hive; which is a system of stacked rectangular boxes with removable frames, and a top-bar hive; which is a series of horizontally connected boxes. Gear up by purchasing protective beekeeping clothing, tools, and feeding supplies. After you introduce your bees to their new hive, continually monitor their behavior and tend to their seasonal needs. Spring is generally the best time of year to start a hive, since it gives bees plenty of time to build up their colony and produce and store honey before winter arrives.
For more information on sustainable gardening practices, read our blog post below:
10 Tips for Sustainable Gardening
Spring is calling and the flowers are in bloom. It’s the time of the year that many homeowners start spending more time in the garden. Having a healthy garden is one of the best ways to create a sustainable home and reduce your household’s carbon footprint. Here are some eco-friendly tips that will help to make your garden even more sustainable.
10 Tips for Sustainable Gardening
1. Compost Your Waste
Composting, which puts your natural waste to good use, is the cornerstone of any sustainable garden. All grass clippings, dead leaves, plants, flowers, and the like are rich in nutrients. By composting, you provide your garden with a natural fertilizer, free of contaminants. Not only will this provide nourishment, but it will also help to produce healthier and tastier food.
2. Mulching
If having a sustainable garden is your goal, it’s important to treat your soil with care. Mulching enriches the soil and ensures it’s as healthy as can be. Mulch conserves the moisture in your soil, ensuring it won’t dry out. It also reduces weed growth and naturally moderates the temperature of the soil. Mulching can cover either bare soil or freshly planted food and flowers.
3. Garden Design
It’s natural to want to accentuate the beauty of your garden when designing it, but the sustainable gardener will prioritize giving plants what they need. Take into consideration which plants need direct access to sunlight, which need the most space in the garden, and any special requirements a plant may need to inhabit optimal growing conditions.
4. Use Natural Weed Killers
One of the pillars of organic gardening is to reduce the use of chemicals whenever and wherever possible. Homemade recipes involving vinegar and corn gluten meal are effective substitutes for harmful, chemical-based weed killers. Whichever method you choose, it’s important to weed by hand often.
5. Use Water Efficiently
Substantial watering is critical to keeping your garden healthy, but overwatering is a common practice and leads to an unsustainable garden. Research the amount of water your plants and flowers need to make sure you aren’t overwatering. If you live in a rainy climate, rain barrels are a useful tool as their function is to catch and conserve the water from your downspouts.
6. Animal Manure
For a more sustainable garden and even healthier soil, consider adding animal manure. Chicken, sheep, and cow manure are all popular choices. Rich in nutrients, it can be used both as a fertilizer and as a soil conditioner. Make sure the manure you purchase is free of pathogens and ask about the recommended window of time from application to harvest before you begin using it.
7. Go Local
Planting natively is a fast ticket to sustainable gardening. Native plants are innately acclimated to local climate conditions, making them easier to grow and maintain. Native plants often require less water to grow due to their familiarity with the soil and rainfall in your region, which cuts down on your garden’s total water intake.
8. Collect Dried Seeds
Believe it or not, you can save your seeds and sow them next year. Wait until the seed is fully ripe before you collect it. It’s important to gather seeds when the weather is dry and to store them in a dry place. To produce healthy plants in the future, the seed must be completely dry.
9. Control Garden Slugs
Slugs are known to wreak havoc on gardens, eating through leaves and fruit, leaving a trail of destruction. There are many ways of controlling slugs in your gardens, but some may do more harm than good. If you choose to use slug bait, go organic. Many slug baits contain chemicals that are highly toxic to other animals.
10. Replace Your Gas Mower
How else can you reduce your garden’s carbon footprint? Replace your gas mower with a more sustainable alternative. Electric mowers and push mowers are functional and more eco-friendly replacements. For added sustainability, consider replacing your other gas-powered equipment, such as trimmers and leaf blowers.
Buying with Gardening in Mind
Every home buyer has a list of must-have amenities that they’re just not willing to compromise on. For some, it could be an open floor plan or maybe a certain number of bedrooms. For others, that priority is a place to garden.
A garden provides a place where one can nurture the earth, feel connected to other living things, and have a positive impact on the environment. If you’re a home buyer who requires space to garden, here are a few things to consider.
The Hardiness Zone
When searching for a home, location is always high on the list of priorities, and for gardeners, it’s no different. If having a garden is important to you, the first thing you should do is check the hardiness zone to determine what you can realistically grow at any home you are considering buying.
Hardiness Zones are used by gardeners and growers around the United States to determine which plants will grow best in their region. The USDA uses the average annual minimum water temperature in the area to establish the zones, making it a great place to start when looking for your next garden.
Hardiness Zones don’t change by street like neighborhoods do but knowing where you are in the zones map can be a helpful guide to what to expect, especially if you’re moving to a completely new region.
Outdoor Space
Your Windermere agent will be able to use a combination of property metrics, photos, and land surveys to help narrow down your search to homes with adequate outdoor space for a garden.
Ask your agent about lot size versus the home size to make sure there is enough land to build and sustain a garden. Prior to visiting homes in person, check the exterior photos to get an idea of the area.
Local Wildlife
Local wildlife organizations have resources about the animals that might appear in your backyard. Knowing this will not only help you protect your veggies, herbs, and other plantings, but also aid in creating a wildlife-friendly sanctuary. The National Wildlife Foundation offers suggestions on how to do this and offers tips on how to attract songbirds and butterflies to your garden.
Infrastructure Requirements
Depending on the size of your garden, you may need to set up appropriate infrastructure for easier care, like a sprinkler system, raised beds, or outbuildings. If the land is uneven, consider installing raised beds that will help flatten the growing surface for your veggies and fickle flowers. A greenhouse can help you control humidity and light levels but be sure to consider the construction costs alongside your home loan amount.
Community Service Day Southwest is Friday, October 21st!
Tomorrow is a very special day here at Windermere Real Estate, it is our annual Community Service Day. Every year our Southwest offices dedicate a day to working in our community to make things a little brighter for our neighbors.
July Perspective
We agree that community service shouldn’t end with a cap and gown. Over the years, our team has proven this time and time again by embodying the notion that service to others is not something you do, it is who you are.
Weekend Warrior: Quick projects to upgrade your home
Memorial Day traditionally represents the kick-off of summer. Kids are getting out of school, families are making summer vacation plans, and backyard barbeques are on everyone’s minds. This is also a great time of the year to get your house in order and ready for the summer season.
