5 Handy Tips To Renovate Your Front Garden

The front garden is a home's first thing that people see before they get into it. For this reason, it should be a sight to behold. It should be inviting, showcase your unique touch, and, most importantly, leave people in awe. You’re probably thinking, “that sounds expensive and hard.” It’s not.

Giving your front garden a new lease of life is effortless. And the good news is that you won’t have to break the bank to renovate your garden. We’ve provided some useful tips to make your front garden from drab to fab.

1. Choose the Right Plants

The type of plants you have in your garden will also go a long way in improving its aesthetic appeal. While choosing front garden plants, the goal is to pick low maintenance and steady plants. It’s also an ideal method to select plants that flower every season. This way, you have something welcoming throughout the year.

You can combine colors in the window boxes to achieve a unique and attractive look. Some of the must-have plants in a front garden include:

• Evergreens: Plants that maintain their green color throughout the year ensure a stunning look all-year-round. Hebes and sarcococcas are an excellent option. Choose the perfect size to help you achieve the look you’re going for and fit your budget.

• Trees: They add life to your garden. However, you need to plant them a bit far from your house. If they’re too close to the house and grow too big, any attempt to take them down can cause severe damage.

• Climbers: Avoid self-clinging climbers. These grow into all areas uncontrollably and may ruin your house. Go for climbers that need support. This way, you can control how they grow.

• Edibles: You should also add some edible plants to improve your garden’s aesthetic appeal and functionality. Some of the best vegetables for the front garden include kale, USSOY, basil, and any type of pepper.

2. Less is More

If you’re an avid gardener, you probably leap at the sight of a new attractive plant. You want to add it to your collection, and there’s nothing that can stop you. However, if one is going for a show-stopper kind of look, they need to resist the temptation. Moreover, to achieve a stunning look, your front garden shouldn’t have too much going on. 

As a rule of thumb, you should limit perennial plants to no more than 10, shrubs shouldn’t be more than 5, and you shouldn’t have more than two trees. This way, your garden looks neat and orderly. It’s best to plant similar species together and repeat the pattern throughout your garden to add a unique touch.

3. Keep Your Pots in Tip-Top Condition

Sometimes, the smallest act can breathe life into your front garden. If you’ve been gardening for a while, after some time, you may notice your pots looking dull and covered with mineral deposits. This is bound to happen because the pots are exposed to a lot of external factors.

But there’s a simple trick to deal with this. Create a mixture of one part vinegar and three parts water and use it to clean the pots. This DIY mix is more effective than using soap or trying to hose down the mineral deposits. After a few trials, your pots should look as good as new.

4. Touch Up Your Lawn

Mowing the lawn will instantly give your front garden a new look. You should strive to keep the grass short and neat at all times. If you’re going for a new look, consider reshaping the lawn. You can choose any shape that complements the patterns in your garden. For instance, if the idea is to frame your house entrance, a square-shaped lawn would be the way to go.

5. Deal With the Rain Effectively

The last thing you might require is to renovate your garden only for the rain to ruin the appearance. It happens a lot if your garden has areas where water can’t flow. After a heavy downpour, these spots will appear soggy for days before they dry up — not a beautiful look.

Some innovative ways to prevent this include installing downspout diversions into sub-irrigated planters. Rain chains and cool rain barrels would also do the trick. It may also be a good idea to reconsider the arrangement of your garden. Layering techniques improve the flow of water, thereby preventing stagnation that ruins the aesthetic appeal.

Final Thoughts

You can transform your garden by doing a few things here and there. As we mentioned, a quick way of achieving a new look is by giving your lawn a new shape. Also, consider reducing the number of plants you have and planting with the entire year in mind. Most importantly, make your garden work for you. Planting edibles is the gift that keeps on giving. It adds to your menu and gives your garden a unique look throughout the year.

5 Adorable Home Design Ideas That Will Also Save Your Electricity Bills

Who doesn’t want a beautiful abode and who doesn’t want to save energy? Fortunately, both can be achieved simultaneously.

Energy is a big deal. If you look at some statistics, the world's electricity consumption is on the rise.

One of the reasons for this is people are getting richer and they have now more money to consume energy every day. And with the rapid advancements, electricity is now available to a larger portion of people. We are able to lit, beautify and make our life feasible with a variety of products and appliances.

A glad thing though, but it does arrive with some caveats. As per EIA, the world's energy demand is expected to increase by 48% before 2040. This raises the risk of energy scarcity, and the adverse environmental impacts from power plant facilities also need to be considered.

The solution? We also need to conserve energy while meeting our electrical energy needs. Creating a balance between our needs vs the supply will keep the ball rolling for us. Efficient energy management will not only trim our electricity bills, but will also contribute to a healthier, greener, and safer earth.

So moving ahead while keeping above things in mind, this article will share you 5 home interior design ideas that’ll help you to meet the bottom line you carve for.

1. Use latest energy-efficient appliances

Using energy efficient products and appliances can save a lot in energy costs.

Start replacing your old incandescent bulbs with the LED one’s, the cheapest retrofit option in the product list. Not only LED bulbs save energy, they also run longer and are brighter than CFL or incandescent bulbs. And yes, the beauty which they add to your home is worth mentioning.

Now, if you are having a budget, then you may optimize your kitchen with smart and energy star appliances. Kitchen is the most active room inside any home, so not taking heed is losing a lot of energy opportunities. 

Let’s talk about, say, dishwashers. Using a standard size dishwasher with Energy Star accreditation will cost you just $35 per year to run it. And it’s not just about energy and their bills, they can also save you will gallons of water wastage. On an average, an Energy Star dishwasher can save around 3870 Gallons of water(that’s a huge number) over its full lifetime. Day by day, as they are getting smarter with their cleaning technology, you'll have less energy and water bills at your hands, plus neat and shiny utensils inside your kitchen adding to its beauty.   

Same goes for washing machines inside your house. You can save around $34 on e-bills as compared to standard one’s in the market, and 2000 gallons of water each other. Of-course, manufactures are keen enough to care for the design part so that it doesn’t look like a big box asking you to cover it. So, utility and beauty goes hand by hand. 

Your refrigerators can also be a saving point. You can save around 9% on your monthly electricity bills and savings goes more than $200 over the complete lifecycle of your Energy Star product. 

And finally, there’s one more glad news. Saving from appliances in a longer run is on one side, but you don’t want to wait too much, then you may become eligible for a rebate from your state for purchasing these aesthetic and energy saving appliances!. Make sure you check out the website of Energy Star to get more details on this.

2. Window Treatments

We all use various window treatments just for decorative purposes, we’ll have to admit this. But, you can achieve more than this, and the complete bottom line. And what’s more, it comes quite inexpensive. 

With a variety of colorful window treatments, you can control how much air or light you need inside your home. Not allowing too much light which ultimately means heat inside your home will help you to save your AC/HVAC bills in summer. And doing contrary in winter will give you feasible energy bills on your room heaters in winter seasons.

So, go with thin and light clothes if you want to warm your house in light winters with a breath of fresh air and natural light. Use shutters, blinds and drapes for a cooler environment with your AC turned on, which also turns out to work well if you want a warm air-trapped environment with your home heating appliances.

3. Ceiling Fans, that reverse too!

Hang ceiling fans inside your home, if you aren't using them till now. Now also comes ceiling fans with reverse direction flow. So better to opt these one. Why? We're going to know soon.

You’ll need to invest one time on their cost while purchasing that comes around $200 on an average. And guess what? It just consumes energy equivalent to a bulb for its running!. They can help you to save around 40% on your electricity bills in summer and 10% on an average in winter.

In summer seasons, it works by pulling the hot air above the ceilings and the cool air needed downwards. Using a combination of your fan and AC is also a good idea to save energy costs due to electricity. And in winter, you can make it to work by changing its direction of rotation, where it’ll push hot air downwards and cool air in reverse direction.

Finally, as ceiling fans come with a variety of designs and style, something eye-catching inside your home would definitely make your visitors give a glance at it, at least once.

4. Smart landscaping ideas

Go green with your home landscaping. Planting small easy to maintain trees and herbs not only add beauty to your house yard, but the greenery also helps in sustainability. If you want to feel it, then visit a green area in summer and you’ll find it cool and soothing to your nerves.    

5. Aesthetic Home Insulation

Which means home insulation keeping house aesthetic in mind. 

Insulation is important to maintain house temperatures. If your house doesn't have any, then you have it. You don’t have to worry if you were, or now thinking it means like living in a plastic bag, which actually doesn’t. Consult a Home Insulation Contractor to audit your house and you’ll get the assistance you need.

So, a home insulation with style and sustainability will save your bills and make your house more adorable.

Finally

So, these were some design ideas for your home to save your bills on utilities  with goals of sustainability in mind. Some are quite easy, (Do It Yourself)DIY and some require expertise and substantial costs. But most importantly, all are worth in the long run. So, make sure to start your planning for the implementation of all these ideas. And for DIY activities, like replacing bulb fixtures and drapes for your window, start doing not from tomorrow or today, but NOW itself.

How to Make Your Home Feel like a Spa

The healing properties of spas, saunas, and Turkish baths have been known since the time of the Greeks and the Ancient Romans. In the past, such places were physical and spiritual sanctuaries available only for the richest. Today, they are very affordable, and almost every household can have one. Although at this time we are spending more time at our homes than we thought we would, we can use this situation to do something creative and positive. Turn things to your advantage and make your home look and feel like a relaxing resort with these easy tips.

The right start – decluttering first

One of the biggest mistakes that people make is that they turn their bathrooms into storages: mountains of towels, piles of facial care products, dozens of shampoo bottles, tons of makeup ... There are usually shelves, boxes, dirty laundry baskets, cat litter, cleaning supplies, you name it. You will hardly be able to relax in your bathroom when surrounded by all these things. Try to remove everything you don’t use on a daily basis and take some time to rearrange everything. Start by storing your toiletries in decorative baskets and putting them in cabinets, or find a creative way to store your towels – something like hanging baskets or even buckets. This way, there will be less clutter and more room for you to relax.

Try out different bath bombs

You might not have a sauna or a jacuzzi in your bathroom, but you can still have that spa experience with a pinch of creativity. Your old bath can be as good as new when you clean it thoroughly, fill it with water, and throw in a nice bath bomb. There are so many different bath bombs on the market that you can easily play with them and improvise until you find the one you absolutely love. There are rainbow ones, black ones, the ones with glitter and dried flowers – something for everybody out there. Light a candle in the bathroom, close your eyes and meditate a bit. You can try out breathing meditations to help you relax, or you can just let your mind wander and daydream like when you were young.

Set the atmosphere

One of the reasons we so gladly go back to spas is because the very atmosphere is relaxing. They achieve this by playing soft, beautiful music – and this is something you can easily do at home. Make your own playlist or find the one you like online and let it quietly play in the background while you’re lighting some candles. You can use simple tea lights, which you can place in mason jars filled with flower petals and water. If you don’t want to cover every inch of your home with candles, you can always just draw the curtains and dim the lights. This doesn’t take too long, but the result is astonishing because you will feel like your living room has turned into a real spa.

Get a massage

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were able to get a professional masseuse to get to our home and give us a nice, relaxing, full-body massage? Sadly, with this pandemic, we are forced to wait for things to go back to normal, or to try out something different. There are so many wonderful massagers you can try that will help you feel relaxed and pampered. You can get a nice foot and leg massager that you can actually carry around from one room to another and use it whenever you feel like it. Another great thing about these portable massagers is that you can use them while watching TV, reading a book, or even while writing emails to your boss – it’s your little secret.

Follow the rules

Just like in real spa centers and resorts, you shouldn’t be using your phone when you’re relaxing. Your spa day is all about you pampering yourself and restoring your inner peace and balance, and endlessly scrolling through social media and checking your email won’t help you get there. This is why you shouldn’t be using your phone when relaxing – put it on silent or ‘do not disturb’ mode for a day (or a few hours at least). If you’re planning on having a spa day with your friends, it’s all the more important not to use your phones. Instead of being distracted, you’ll focus on feeling good.

Scents to relieve the stress

Another thing that spa centers do is using certain scents to help you calm down and relax, and you can use this trick in your home. Aromatherapy is proven to have health benefits that include improved quality of life, especially for people who suffer from chronic health conditions, relief from anxiety and depression, as well as improved sleep The most popular scents for therapy are lavender, peppermint, lemon, Ylang-ylang, Frankincense, Neroli, and Bergamot. However, try not to overdo it – a different scent in each room can be overwhelming instead of soothing, so you might want to pick one or two scents for your entire house.

Choose colors wisely

Another trick you can use to make your home not only look, but also really feel like an actual real spa is carefully picking the color scheme. You will probably want to fill your home with details in your favorite color, but we would advise you to choose the ones that evoke the memory of nature. You will get the best results when you implement more earthy and natural tones such as beige, brown, mint green, and light blue. You can get curtains, cushions, towels, tablecloths, and other little accessories for your home in these shades since this will make you feel like you are in a real resort even when you’re just in your bathroom or bedroom.

Get more plants

Taking care of plants is a great way to relax and lower your blood pressure. A lot of people hesitate to put plants into their bathrooms because they are worried about the amount of light, air, and humidity, and rightly so. Bathroom conditions are far from perfect for some plants (for example, hibiscus, certain types of cacti and succulents), but there are also plants that will thrive if you place them there. Bathrooms are like heaven for certain plants – aloe vera, bamboo, fern, and begonia are just some of the plants that will love humidity and dark. Still, no matter how much you love plants, you don’t want your bathroom to turn into a greenhouse, so keep it simple, tidy, and organized.

Just because you can’t leave your home because of the pandemic doesn’t mean that you can’t get a quality spa treatment. We are all feeling stressed and anxious, so a little bit of self-care and pampering will help you feel like your old self. These are just some of the things you can to do at home to create a soothing spa-like atmosphere because going to a spa doesn’t have to be expensive or over-the-top. If you manage to transform your home (or at least parts of it) into your own little recluse, you will easily get that spa experience right in your bedroom or bathroom.

Ways to Support Healthcare Departments During Covid-19 Pandemic

Currently, in this period, when the pandemic is at its diverse terrible stages yet in the United States. In this aggregate, appreciation has gone generally mild.

In case you are at residence understanding this and your most exceptional attention is maybe running out meals or ahem, tissue, you are indeed with a portion of the successful ones in the nation currently. Valets anywhere are leading directly into places where every person is trying to stay away from — medical emergencies, emergency clinics, pressing consideration offices, and clinical workplaces overflowing with peoples who require medical care recognized with COVID-19.

How we forgot those long days, intense and unexpected, but medical care front line workers around the globe are using their talent for defended the community spread against the COVID-19 pandemic. Their outstanding support and help are appreciation from the community that keeps medical care peoples going. In this blog, you can get a couple of ways to help the infirmary, your medical services suppliers, and the local community.

Funnel PPE Donations Appropriately

Applications for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits endowments are expanding across the digital media. Donations, regardless of how tiny, can unite to have a significant impact. The state's Office of Emergency Management is intriguing contributions for hospitals, medical services suppliers through all states, and best prepared to sort out this exertion.

Stay Home

The Choice you make during the COVID-19 pandemics can significantly impact your health and your loved ones around you. The pictures of healthcare workers holding the slogans are "I stayed at work for you and you have to stay home for us," spreading and popping most of the places. You must take this message very-very seriously because if you care yourself ultimately, you care about your family too. You must maintain the social distancing, and it also helps to stop spreading coronavirus to others. 

At this time, you have seen, you can go far in aiding reinforce somebody's spirits. Realizing you perceive their penance and care enough to express gratitude toward them could give a depleted medical attendant in your life the solidarity to confront another move.

Cook them a Healthy Meal

You must cook the food and follow the diet that boosts your immune system. You can eat fruits and vegetables five times a day. You can include the pulses in your daily or weekly diets; use them three times a week. You do not buy non-perishable foods. If you want to stay healthy during this pandemic time, you must wash your vegetables cut, and freeze them before use. 

Donate Medical Supplies

Hospitals have confronted the best wishes of being the receiver of 100 thousand, granted N-95 masks, hand gloves, surgical masks, PPE kits, and other essential items to ensure our frontline medical workers' protection. Because of this staggering reaction and liberality of our local area, Huntington has chosen to briefly suspend its gift place while we keep battling COVID-19.

Send Messages of Gratitude & Support

If you realize a medical care specialist, connect with, share your thanks, and give them your help. Most of the peoples are staying at work longer than required and share the same actions that everybody has at this moment, particularly with regards to childcare or getting vital food and supplies. Offer to help any way you can. It indeed implies a great deal. You can likewise share a directive for medical care laborers on Hackensack Meridian Health's online media accounts, so they realize you are considering them.

Sew Masks

A handcrafted or sewn mask does not meet PPE guidelines, and even N95 masks are "not one-size-fits-all and ought properly to fit on a specific premise," Avaltroni said. "In any case, we're in a combat area mentality right now where anything is superior to nothing." So, continue sewing those covers and giving them in the coordinated manner you would differently supplies.

Donate Blood

Hospitals want your assistance in keeping our blood supplies up. Bestowing blood is still a reliable practice during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Volunteer Your Time 

Most Agencies—incredibly long term Medicare departments—have a volunteer office or administrator. Offer to be a penal, to settle on the telephone to isolated patients, or send postcards. With visitation completely bound, this reduces the pressure on health care workers who can't contribute as much energy as they'd like with patients.

Help with Drive Thru Relief Structures

Temporary Medical Structure departments to make drive-through COVID testing space, as brief emergency clinics, as COVID vaccine center, or as social insulating measures and safeguards. Clear range medical clinic tents can be raised anyplace, on any ground. They are introduced nearby, precisely where you need them. It very well may be based on grass, rock, black-top, and solid (concrete requires penetrating before stake establishment). These drive thru relief structures are prepared to store clinical supplies and hardware and be retrofitted to incorporate HVAC units to keep the clinic workforce and patients agreeable.