A SIMPLE GUIDE TO CREATING A COOL SUMMER GARDEN

Summer is coming and the warm months are perfect for parties and relaxation out in the garden. But the intense sunlight can also turn your barbecues and gatherings into a nightmare. Nobody likes to heal their sunburn the next day. So what’s the solution? Should you take your festivities inside? Not necessarily. Check out our creative garden ideas to prepare your oasis for the heat. 



1. RELAXING WATER ELEMENTS 


Misting systems are great to relieve some of the stress from the heat. If you’re looking for fairy garden ideas, you might want to consider installing a little pond. Other great small garden ideas are little fountains that add atmosphere to your garden and attract butterflies and birds. The best part is that the flowing water can ease your stress levels simply with its sound. Backyard garden ideas for cooling the air can be something as simple as installing an oscillating sprinkler. The kids are going to love it. 

Water also creates a perfect environment for plants to grow. When the weather gets cooler after summer, you can even plant some trees for the future. These will be excellent cover from light. But let’s look at some items for protection that you can start using right away. 




2. GARDEN IDEAS FOR EXTRA SHADE

If your garden doesn’t have a leafy tree to protect you from the blazing sun, you still have plenty of options to create some cover. The most simple solution is to get a patio umbrella. You can use it to cover your favorite place in the garden. The colorful umbrellas will liven up your garden. Use some lawn edgers to trim around the flowerbeds and your garden will be ready to host even formal dinner parties. 



But if you have some spare time, you can also put up something more complex for a shade. What are we talking about? A pergola! Put some honeysuckle vines growing on it and soon you’ll have a nice cool shade in your backyard. A pergola covered with beautiful vines is also a neat choice for flower garden ideas. 

If you love building and it comes easy to you, we’d recommend you to put up the ultimate shelter from the beams. 

3. SCREEN HOUSE – FOR THE AMBITIOUS ONES


What is the ultimate cover from the sun? It’s the stand-alone screen house. To build one, make sure you follow a detailed plan for your project. The cool part is that you can design the screen house to look exactly like you want. The design options are limitless. 

Here’s another reason to put up a screen house: it will keep the pests away from your vegetable garden. If you’ve been looking for some vegetable garden ideas, don’t forget to start with building protection for it. 

CONCLUSION

Summer months can get hot and to fully enjoy your garden, you need to get prepared for the heat. Add some water to your garden, create shades, and if you have enough time, put up a screen house. June is not far anymore, so best get started with creating your cool summer garden now. 

What did you think of our tips for keeping your garden cool? Did we give you some new ideas on how to improve your garden? Got a great tip of your own? Leave comments below, we’d love to know about your gardening experiences. Your opinion is important to us! 




Author’s Bio: 

Malcolm Cano is a professional florist and hobby gardener. He loves spending time building his little backyard garden. It has a calming effect on his similar to meditation.  As a dad, he really appreciates making parenting easier with his tips. Also, he had a lot of home improvement ideas to share. Over the years Malcolm has discovered lots of gardening hacks and loves to share these in blog posts.

Guest Contributor: Malcolm Cano

TOOLS USED BY DIY EXPERTS WHEN THEY HAVE LESS GARDENING EXPERIENCE?

TOOLS USED BY DIY EXPERTS WHEN THEY HAVE LESS GARDENING EXPERIENCE?

Everyday gardening could be a challenge if you have to call for a handyman to fix or maintain your garden. Thanks to the DIY experts who know how to save money and yet keeping the yard look beautiful always. These DIY handyman gardening tools can save you ample money that you can use on other activities. Perhaps, getting more plants would be an amazing idea for a healthier life.

Take a quick read of this article as we have listed some of the best gardening tools recommended by the precioushandyman.com or DIY experts. These tools come handy when you have lesser experience in gardening and do not wish to experiment on anything with little knowledge.

Tools Used by DIY Experts

1. Gardening gloves:

No task is possible without proper gardening gloves especially with less experience. You cannot afford to face any injury by sharp gardening tools or objects thus, buying a pair of gardening tools will cost you less and save more than on injuries.

2. Shovel:

Shovel is made with some amazing creative ideas too online. You may wish to check some videos by the DIY experts. Shovels could be of different types such as post hole diggers, drain spades, digging shovels, scoop shovels, etc.… Based on your requirement you may buy a shovel within your budget. These come handy as you cannot afford to dig every pot of plant or portion of your grass with a knife.

3. Hose:

No DIY activity works without a watering hose. Watering is more comfortable with the help of a good basic hose. Depending on the garden size, you may buy the tool to water plants. You can cover a larger area than otherwise by bringing a watering hose in your garden. Getting the right nozzle will further help you to reach extra and difficult areas too.

4. Rake:

Rake could be built of metal, plastic, or bamboo. Metal rakes are most preferred by DIY experts for longer durability and quality. You can also choose an adjustable rake to make life easier with gardening. Rakes are one of the most essential tools for gardening especially for beginners. The purpose of buying these is to collect piles of leaves with ease and comfort. The different types of rakes are, lawn rakes, shrub rakes, hand rake, and thatch rake. 

5. Wheel barrow:

Wheel barrows are essential if you have unwanted soil that needs to be moved around from your garden. These come handy to settle compost in the garden bed areas. There are some maintenance tips that need to be followed if you go for a traditional wheel barrow. You may find the basic tips along with the product or you can check these online. Choose a wheelbarrow that you can easily move especially after loading it.

Few other tools that come handy for gardening beginners as suggested by DIY experts are watering can, watering wand, Hoe, garden fork, Loppers, and some small tools. Hope you are all set to settle the beauty of your garden with these cost saving tools. 

 Guest Contributor, Maninder Singh

10 BACKYARD POND WATERFALL IDEAS YOU’LL ABSOLUTELY LOVE

GARDEN POND WATERFALL IDEAS EVERY BACKYARD NEEDS

Every home needs to have a waterfall pond in their backyard. Since most of us are going to be stuck at home for the rest of the Summer, due to Covid-19, why not add an appealing feature to your backyard that will bring joy into your life? It doesn’t have to be anything to elaborate. Here are 10 pond waterfalls that you’ll absolutely love.

Waterfall with small koi pond
Waterfall with small koi pond
Koi pond with water feature
Koi pond with water feature
Water pond with bridge and bench
Water pond with bridge and bench
Small Koi pond with water feature
Small Koi pond with water feature
Water stream with rock display
Water stream with rock display
Small pond with rock features
Small pond with rock features
Waterfall with lights
Waterfall with lights
Waterfall with bridge to heaven
Waterfall with bridge to heaven
A Zen Dream
A Zen Dream
Backyard Waterfall Heaven
Backyard Waterfall Heaven

There you have it, 10 backyard pond waterfall ideas that should bring absolute happiness and joy into your life!!!!

EASY AND SIMPLE DIY TIPS TO UPGRADE YOUR BATHROOM

Your bathroom is probably the second most personal area in your house next to your own room. This is where most of your self-care routines take place, and it is also an area that is often considered when it comes to selling a house aside from the kitchen. That’s why it’s important to make it a space you actually like spending time in.

Upgrading your bathroom actually doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have a major overhaul. You can also improve your bathroom yourself. All you need is to allot time to do it.

Do-it-yourself bathroom makeovers have an advantage because they cost less than typical remodeling, which normally involves tearing down and removing a lot of stuff. If you are interested in making this project happen, then this article can help you out. The following are easy and simple DIY tips to upgrade your bathroom.

UPDATE FIXTURES AND HARDWARE

In the grand scheme of things in your bathroom, something so disproportionately small as hardware and fixtures are so important for providing that chic finishing touch. And it will only cost you less for something that has a major impact.

You can start by replacing your bathroom faucet by installing something that’s sleeker and more functional and/or more contemporary. You may also swap shower fixtures if you’re planning to remodel your shower anyway. Another option is to install new wall hooks where you can keep your towel and clothes from falling to the bathroom floor.

There are plenty of options for these upgrades that can be found in a quality hardware store like Magnificent Marketing.

STYLISH BATHROOM LIGHTINGS

It may sound intimidating, but most people can switch out a light fixture safely and successfully by being careful and following instructions. Fresh lighting also makes a huge difference for your bathroom. This is another simple DIY bathroom upgrade that you can do in just under an hour or so.

For people who have large mirrors inside the bathroom, installing a light directly onto the bathroom mirror is a unique and useful idea. Since your mirror occupies space, most of the time you won’t be able to get lighting directed to your face. By installing a light directly onto your mirror, you will be able to see yourself clearly and do what you need to do in front of the mirror much quicker.

MAXIMIZE STORAGE SPACE

Maximizing storage space in your bathroom includes utilizing underutilized areas to store items. One area of your bathroom that you can use for storage is the wall. Take advantage of your wall space by mounting ledges, shelving, or racks to achieve this.

You can put your hygiene and vanity items such as your toothbrush, toothpaste, perfume bottles, and your comb on racks above your sink and below your mirror. Using the wall for storage space will help avoid clutter inside your bathroom.

MAXIMIZE THE MIRROR

Mirrors are beneficial particularly in upgrading small bathrooms. They reflect a lot of light and make the tiniest feel a bit more spacious than it actually is. Aside from ensuring that it is well-lit, your bathroom mirror should be large enough to see at least your entire head when you stand in front of it.

WRAP UP

These simple DIY tips are exactly what you need for your bathroom. Something simple, but will have a great overall effect on how it looks and how comfortable you feel when you use it.

Author’s Bio:

Rosette has a knack for anything DIY. She spent her younger years learning about the different hardware tools and equipment in the hopes of establishing a hardware business in the future. Her career options may have changed, but today, she continues to write so passionately about her first love.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ASBESTOS AND ITS EXPOSURE RISKS

Are you living in a house that was built in the 20th century, especially during the middle to late part of that period?

If the answer is yes, then there’s a huge possibility that your residence has asbestos in its walls, floors, and even textured ceilings. That means your house will have to undergo proper asbestos abatement and removal at some point.

Manufacturers have heavily favored the use of asbestos in the production of cement, floor tiles, and other construction products during that period. Even products like hair dryers and car brakes contained a certain amount of asbestos back then. Asbestos, after all, is incredibly resistant to fire and heat, electricity, and corrosion, which makes them an ideal material for construction products and the like.

If asbestos is that useful, then why is it that the mere mention of the word now brings forth images of suffering and death?

WHAT IS ASBESTOS?

Asbestos is a naturally-occurring mineral made up of needle-like fibers that are soft, thin, and flexible.

It also happens to be a human carcinogen and has been considered as such since the 1980s. Many countries have promptly banned the use and importation of asbestos. Some nations, however, have chosen not to impose any such bans, and are still using asbestos in various products, albeit at a much smaller scale than before.

EFFECTS OF ASBESTOS EXPOSURE

Fire, electricity, and corrosion can’t do much to asbestos. Handling by humans, however, can break asbestos quite easily.

Something as simple as drilling into walls or taking a sledgehammer to a floor can send tiny asbestos fibers flying in the air. Without adequate protection, the people performing the tasks mentioned above are likely to inhale those fibers. And if that level of exposure is a regular thing, it would only be a matter of time before they develop any of the following illnesses:

MESOTHELIOMA

Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that is most closely associated with asbestos exposure. Every year, approximately 3,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma in the United States.  From 1999 to 2015, eight per one million people in the U.S. have succumbed to the illness.

As with any type of cancer, there is no cure for mesothelioma, which affects the pleura and the peritoneum, which are the serous membranes that line the lungs and the abdominal cavity, respectively.

The symptoms of mesothelioma include:

  • chest or abdominal pain
  • shortness of breath
  • fever or night sweats
  • fatigue
  • muscle weakness
  • dry, wheezing cough

ASBESTOSIS

When a person inhales asbestos fibers over a long period, he or she will also likely develop asbestosis, a lung disease that causes severe respiratory problems and scars lung tissue. People with asbestosis will experience a variety of symptoms, the most common of which are:

  • swelling in the neck or face
  • swallowing difficulties
  • hypertension
  • breathing that crackles
  • blood in sputum
  • shortness of breath
  • weight loss
  • decreased appetite
  • finger deformity

Asbestosis may not be a cancer, but anyone suffering from this illness is at risk of developing mesothelioma.

LUNG CANCER

The leading cause of lung cancer may be smoking, but a small percentage of lung cancer cases have a direct link to asbestos exposure.

OVARIAN CANCER

In 2012, the International Agency for Research on Cancer had confirmed that there is a link between asbestos exposure and ovarian cancer.

OCCUPATIONS WITH HIGHEST ASBESTOS EXPOSURE RISK

Construction workers have a pretty high risk of asbestos exposure. The same goes for people who work in factories and shipyards.

At one point, men and women in uniform were very much at risk of asbestos exposure because the military used a lot of products containing the mineral. Navy ships, in particular, used a lot of asbestos for decades.

NO U.S. BAN

Many people don’t know that as deadly as asbestos has proven to be, the United States still didn’t see fit to ban asbestos. To this very day, fireproofing materials and gaskets manufactured in the U.S. contain asbestos.

Australia, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and other European Union countries have banned the importation and use of asbestos. There is no sign, however, that the United States, Russia, China, and several other countries are going to follow suit anytime soon.

Guest Contributor: Rachel Anderson