Tag Archives: home improvement

Landscaping

Popular Concrete Home Renovations And Landscaping Ideas For Your Front Yard

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When people think of home renovations and landscaping, they often do not consider using concrete. However, there have been many innovations in the use of concrete that have made it an aesthetically pleasing feature that will add charm and elegance to a property and home. As well, concrete is an inexpensive, durable, and long-lasting material. With a little creativity, it is easy to enhance and beautify any part of the home and property using concrete. Below are a number of popular concrete home renovations and landscaping ideas for your front yard:

1. Garden stepping stones: Adding concrete garden stepping stones is a creative way to enhance and beautify the front yard. You can create innovative stone shapes and have your own choice in size of the stones to create walkways and enhance certain areas in the front yard such as placing them around he door way or in front of the flower garden or around trees or shrubs. The most popular preference is creating walkways because you can have custom design including color or stain preference, and your own unique design. You can exercise your creativity to make your own unique garden stones.

2. Concrete Patios: Creating a brick design for a concrete patio is a popular choice. Stamped concrete is a technique used to create the brick design. The concrete is altered and color is added to the surface of the concrete to make it look like bricks. As well, the concrete can be altered to look like cobblestone and wood. The choice is yours so you can pick the best concrete design to suit your home and property. It will give you the flexibility to create a patio that is unique and appealing, As well, you never have to worry about rot, termites, or degradation. Homeowners now have the ability to have their patios customized to their own unique preference. A concrete patio is a great addition for families. It cannot be damaged by children and it can withstand harsh environmental conditions. The children can have fun on the patio playing games and other activities.

3. Concrete Walkway: Creating a concrete walkway is a great way to enhance the beauty of the front yard. You can create a walk way based on your personal preference. You can use your own choice of design, pattern, and color. You can even plant flowers along either side of the walkway for added elegance. Cobblestone and brick designs are very popular choices for a walkway.

4. Concrete Driveway: A cobble stone or seashell concrete driveway is a very popular choice. This type of driveway is achieved by using stamped concrete. The concrete stamps are used to apply the impressions and the result is concrete that mimic the chosen design. A special color dye can be added to make the concrete more like the pattern that is being imitated. Homeowners now have the ability to have their driveway customized to their own unique preference.

Improving the front yard is always a rewarding home renovation project. In the front yard, homeowners are now able to create patios, driveways, walkways, and any other area that can use enhancement using concrete. Decorative concrete is an inexpensive way to add value to the home and property while making it more beautiful.

Looking for a concrete contractor? Then be sure to visit the experts at Elite Concrete, one of the top concrete contractors in Toronto and the GTA offering stamped concrete services including patios, driveways, walkways and even full landscaping designs.

Gardening

The Characteristic Feature Of Flowering Cherries

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Cherry varieties to choose. There is a wealth of variety in flowering cherries. The names of some thousands are recorded in Japanese botanical records, but those commonly grown here fall into four groups. First to bloom, at about the same time as forsythia, are the varieties of Prunus subhirtella, the Higan cherries. Very common through the suburbs of cities is the weeping cherry, Shidare Higan, popular as a specimen lawn tree. It is usually grafted on a bare stem 5 or 6 feet high. When young, the trees are likely to be of an uninteresting mushroom shape, but they become more irregular and picturesque as they mature. It a pity that the natural type, which grows into a tall, rather narrow, weeping tree, is not more generally available.

Little planted except in parks is the lovely Higan, Prunus subhirtella, which grows into a small, bushy tree. it bears a profusion of single pink flowers like those of the weeping cherry. Another variety, Jugatsu, Prunus subhirtella autumnalis, has the same bush habit as the Higan, with single or semi-double flowers. In addition to its regular spring bloom, this tree nearly always flowers again in October and November, often abundantly enough to make a fine display.

Coming after the Higans in time of bloom is the Yoshino cherry, Prunus yedoensis. It is Yoshino that is planted near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. A. quick growing, wide-spreading tree, it ultimately reaches a height of 30 feet or more. It blooms before leafing out, the pale pink or almost white, single, slightly fragrant blossoms covering the gray branches. In the whole plant kingdom there are few trees to equal the beauty of this one in full flower.

Last to bloom come the varieties of Prunus serrulata and Prunus sargenti. Sargent’s cherry is the hardiest of the Orientals, a splendid tree that grows to 60 feet in its native China. The single pink flowers are borne in profusion. The young foliage is bronzy and in autumn the leaves turn an attractive shade of red. This tree is somewhat less tolerant of warm climates than the other species. Among the names of varieties of Prunus serrulata found- in catalogs are Fugenzo, Kwanzan, Taki-Nioi, Shirotae, Shiro-Fugen, Naden and Amano-Gawa.

Fugenzo and Kwanzan are two of the best double pinks. They are spreading, bushy trees and strong growers. The flowers are a clear deep pink; the young leaves, light bronze. A smaller tree, seldom exceeding 12 or 15 feet, with single white, delightfully fragrant flowers is Taki-Nioi. The young foliage of this, too, is reddish brown. Shirotae is an earlier white and has semi-double flowers. Amano-Gawa is the one cherry that can always be bought true to name, for its clustered, upright habit is unmistakable even in the nursery. It is particularly valuable where space is limited or for accent in the large garden. It reaches a height of 25 feet with a width of only a few feet. The flowers are semi-double, deep pink in the bud, pale when they open; the young leaves are reddish brown.