Building a Garage Without a Sweat

Spending money in a time where everyone is feeling the pinch of an economic crisis seems like a bad decision. Everywhere you go, people are complaining of losing their purchasing power. With the threat of financial bankruptcy hovering over the heads of numerous Wall Street firms, ordinary employees are mostly holding on to their savings so that they can have something to use in case mass layoffs will happen.

Now, if you are one of the lucky few who are financially at ease because you have enough savings to last for a long time, congratulations! There is no need to act like a miser but you must also control the impulse to splurge. Try to create a harmonious balance between the two so that you can actually say that you have lived life to the fullest. This includes indulging in your wants, like having a garage built beside your house. Consider it as a reward for a job well done.

Building a garage is possible without loosing all your clothes or your properties. Just read the succeeding tips to know how to make it happen.

First, sit down and have a serious talk with your architect, contractor and engineer for the blueprint of the garage. It is a serious investment that entails spending a big amount so you must make sure that you are not being shortchanged. The design must fit your discerning needs. Make sure that the people you hired can explain in layman’s terms what exactly they are going to do step by step. When you have your blueprint, make sure that it includes foundation plan, the exterior elevation blueprint, floor plans, a cross section view and the highly important specifications. Additional stipulations may be included according to your whims.

Next, knowing where to put the windows and doors will help create the total look of the garage. Windows must be appropriate in size and diameter to allow rays of sun inside the garage so that there would still be a source of light without turning on an electric bulb. It has also an added bonus of killing microorganisms. Another purpose of the window is to allow air to ventilate properly inside the garage. This is to avoid that familiar musty odor which affects dark and damp places. A door strategically placed in front of the garage will also provide easy access no matter what time of the year it is. Now, if you don?t want to pass through the main door all the time, have a side door installed so that you can pass through it discreetly.

Aside from just being a plain old garage, you could maximize its use by transforming it into a storage area. Build a loft so that your stuff will be lifted off the ground. This way, if ever there are pests that can enter the garage, your belongings are in a secure location.

Moreover, if you want to construct a living area above the garage, it could be rented out to an interested individual. Just make sure that he or she is safe to be with by doing a background check so that you won’t have any qualms living with him or her. The monthly payments can help you recover the expenses you have released for the construction of the garage.

In order to cut costs considerably, buy all your raw materials in bulk from a wholesaler. This includes the sacks of sand, cement and gravel, plywood, nails, piles of lumber, cans of paint and so on. This will save you the hassle from going back and forth.

Now that you know the secrets of building a garage, what are you waiting for? Start now!

New Garage for Neophytes

Space seems to be the prevailing woe of quite a large number of people. This is understandable since apartment rooms and condominium units charge a hefty rate every month while house and lots in the suburbs require high monthly amortizations. This has led to the need for urban planner and interior designers since they know how to truly maximize any living space presented to them.

Now, if you think you have neither talent of the two aforementioned professionals, worry not. You may still tap your creativity in order to evaluate whether building a new garage in your place is a possible option.

Typically, a simple garage does not need a huge amount of cash in order to be built. Keep this in mind so that you won’t have to act like a miser and scrimp on the budget. Failure to heed this advice will result to a finished product that has absolutely no sense of style that even a hobo would not feel comfortable living in it. So, if you are mulling over on whether or not building a new garage will benefit you, here is a list of great ideas to convince you that you can achieve a special garage.

First, you have to decide whether you will choose the attached or detached option. Does it sound Greek? Well, when we say attached, it means that the garage is connected or built in conjunction with the house. Most housing communities nowadays have this type of garages. This is due to the convenience it offers especially during winter when the biting cold and nippy air is bombarding you with melted snow. During the summer season, attached garages also protect you from the scorching heat of the summer sun. Unfortunately, this option limits the design probabilities for the house.

If you want to turn a hundred and eighty degrees, you may select the detached type of garage. It offers numerous advantages such as eliminating the imposing garage-dominated facade of your abode. This way, you will be free to make your house as attractive as you possibly can. You may also set back your garage far away from your home so that it will not look too crowded. A third benefit is that the space meant for the garage may be utilized for something else, like a plant and chair-dotted patio or a cool kitchen garden. Doesn’t it sound exciting to you? Lastly, for those who are living in a moderate climate, you will greatly appreciate the green landscaped walk from your trusty automobile to the house.

Instead of resorting to the typical layout wherein the house plan has a garage facing the street directly, attached to one side of the house, with the entry to the insides requiring a mini tour of the laundry or utility room, bypassing a cozy bathroom along the way, why don’t you build a simple mudroom with a good storage area and chairs to sit on. This option is more practical and welcoming.

For those who own numerous automobiles, multi-car garages doesn’t exactly pose as a big problem nowadays. What is important is that your architect is informed ahead of time so that he can work in collaboration with the engineer and contractor assigned to your house.

Last but not the least; you must take into account the building of stairs in the garage plan if you are planning to rent out the upper floor to interested parties. Not only will you be maximizing your space, you will also be earning an extra income to supplement your needs.

When Did You Last Decorate Your Bathroom or Kitchen?

For the people who seem to have it all or for those who are bored with their lifestyle, there are several things that one can do to spruce-up one’s life. Perhaps one of the best ways however is to start redecorating one’s house. Some of the first places one should look at redecorating are your bathroom and kitchen.

These are usually the most overlooked and yet, most used rooms in the entire house. Think about it, have you spruced up at least even one of these rooms within the past five years? The answer is probably “no”, in which case think back to the last time you even looked closely at your bathroom or kitchen other than to Spring clean them.

Probably, if you noticed anything at all, you put the notion off until a future date when you could devote more time to decorating your bathroom or kitchen, although at that time, the place certainly didn’t look as bad as it does now, after all, the years soon mount up and even though you’ve been keeping it rigorously clean you can’t prevent the slow progress of time.

It is probably true that if you took a closer look now, you’d find that the drapes are looking a might shabby and worn around the edges, as are the bathroom rugs. And do not even talk about the toilet roll holder. It is quite true that they don’t make them like they used to and for a very good reason too!

Do yourself a favour and throw out all the unnecessary clutter in the room and get yourself some new stuff – you will be surprised at what you can find nowadays. Besides, you’ve probably been admiring that lovely bathroom set you saw in the shop for some time now, so at the very least now you will have a good reason to go out and splash out on yourself.

And while you’re about it, don’t forget to buy that lovely new spice rack you saw for the kitchen and a few mats that can be used in either room. Ideally, they should be resistant to such everyday accidents like water spillage, soap, oil grease and all the other things that somehow seem to become embedded in your carpets.

However, if you’re looking for a few new ideas about decorating your bathroom or your kitchen, there are a number of resources for you to get your inspiration from. The best I’ve found are the catalogues you can browse through to your heart’s content.

With all these options, you could even swap something that is less expensive for the things you see in the catalogues. This then, is the best way to get your decorating projects off the ground and to keep yourself amusingly busy for some while to come and to transform your long suffering bathroom and kitchen into new and sparkling areas.

Wood Blewits

The Grisette is a relatively slender, tall, very fragile mushroom with striated, thinly fleshed cap. Its gills are very dense and the basal volva is large and has lobed margins. It grows in clamp places in coniferous forests.

The stipe always lacks a ring and it was therefove formerly classified as a member of the independent Amanitopsis genus. The colour of its cap is changeable, but a typical Grisette has a grey cap on a whitish stipe and volva. The fruit- bodies with an orange or orange-brown or sometimes a slightly olive tinged cap are classified as Amanita crocea. Their stipes are similarly coloured and are characterized by transverse broken lines.

Like Blewits, fresh fruit-bodies of Wood Blewits contain a substance which damages red blood- cells. However, it is neutralized by boiling and so thoroughly cooked mushrooms are not dangerous. Wood Blewits can be confused with some purple species of the Cortiwarivs genus. However, all of these are distinguished by their rust-brown spore powder, by the presence of the cobweb-like veil (cortina) and by their unpleasant smell.

Edible mushrooms can be found not only in forests, but also in meadows, pastures and on grassy slopes. Blewits are among the most substantial and tasty. They even attract the inexperienced eye because they often grow in circles in patches of dark green grass, which ate a strikingly deeper green than the rest of the sward. A similar phenomenon may be observed in the Fairy-ring champignon (Marasmius oreades) and is due to the production of nitrogen, which enriches the soil and provides additional nourishment for green plants. This is one example of the symbiosis of certain fungus mycelia and adjacent green plants.

The flesh of the Sulphur tuft is a bright yellow and has a repulsive bitter taste, whilst that of Hy sublateritium is a dirty white with a rust-coloured tinge at the base of the stipe and it has only a slight bitter taste. The former species has sulphur-yellow, later greenish gills, while in the latter species the gills are pale yellow, later turning to an olive- brown. When the mushrooms mature the gills of both species turn purple-black or chocolate-brown as a result of the colour of the ripe spores.

In calm weather conditions it is possible to smell the scent of Clitocybe adorn at a distance of several metres away, especially when several specimens arc growing together in one spot. This species is edible and best utilized when added to mixtures of other, less aromatic mushrooms. It grows predominantly in spruce forests amongst rotting needles. It loses its typical scent when it is dried out.

Asarabacca

Not all alliums look like chives or the garlic used in cookery. Ram- sons, which grows in open as well as shaded deciduous groves, flood-plain forests, and mountain beech woods, is a species with broad leaves vaguely resembling those of Great Plantain.

In western Europe, it forms distinctive communities in hornbeam woodlands. Together with many other herbs it contributes to the wealth of their undergrowth. It also occurs in acid soil, oak forests, or rather testifies to their subsidiary development where oak/hornbeam stands once stood. Greater Stitchwort is common in fertile soils, waterside thickets, and on colluvial as well as alluvial deposits. It also occurs in hedgerows, shrub growth, and forest margins.

Ramsons’ association with various kinds of forest indicates a certain adaptability to soil acidity: it is a plant which likes some acid soils as well as some neutral to slightly alkaline soils.

Asarabacca is a perennial herb with creeping branching rhizomes which spread thickly in the surface layers of the soil. In the wild, as well as under cultivation, it forms vast ground-covering masses.

Both Greater Stitchwort and S. nemorum are perennial herbs. Greater Stitchwort forms loose tufts and has a slender creeping rhizome from which rise quadrangular stems with long narrowly-lanceolate opposite leaves which are joined at the base. The corolla is much longer than the calyx.

The slender rhizomes of Wood Stitchwort give rise to flowering as well as non-flowering glandular-pubescent stems with large stalked leaves. The bottom stem leaves are smaller than those on the upper part of the stem. The leaves below the flowerheads are also sessile but are always much wider than the sessile leaves of Greater Stitchwort. Both stitchworts flower from April until June. The fruit is a capsule which splits to the base by six valves. The seeds are small, rounded, and tubercicd.

Pest and Diseases of Grapes

There are those who have tried out the Labruscan varieties from Ontario. These cannot be grown under Guyot pruning methods but must be cultivated by a simpler system such as one main rod plus six strong side growths, which are pruned back hard each January.

They could also be grown on the ‘Grow as you like’ system, being allowed to scramble over a trellis or cover a fence or wall. Under this system very little pruning is necessary, though it does pay to cut back the fruiting laterals in the summer at two leaves above a bunch.

Once again the vine is allowed to grow naturally the first year and then it is cut down to within two buds of its base. The strongest of the shoots that result is kept and is tied perpendicularly to a stout bamboo cane. All side growths that develop are pinched out with the thumb and forefinger to their base. When all the leaves have fallen, the long cane should first of all be tied to the stake and then should be carefully bent so that it can be tied along the lower wire. This bending of the cane, at an angle of 90 degrees, is important because the flow of sap is checked.

Red Spiders can be detected by examining the back of the leaf with a magnifying glass. Red Spider is a bad name. Yellow Mite would be better.

Some people give each vine one stake, 4 feet out of the ground, and then, instead of tying the rods out to ‘form a goblet, they merely tie the tips of the rods to the top of the stakes to form an inverted cone. By the way, do not allow the young cane to go on growing after the requisite number of bunches of grapes have been produced. You should always pinch out the growing point at 3 leaves beyond the top hunch.

Those who don’t believe in straw mulching may like to know that the prunings and foliage of healthy vines may be roto-tilled shallowly into the soil, in November, and so help to keep up the humus content. By rotary hoeing you smash up the prunings which then soon decompose.

Tips on Growing Grapes

It is generally agreed that vines need an absolute minimum of feeding and they have done well in quite light soil where the roots can get hold of moisture at the right time. In fact, it is generally agreed that it pays to plant vines fairly close because the root competition helps to ensure sufficient starvation.

The methods must inevitably vary, depending on the climate, the method of culture and training, and to a certain extent on the individual varieties. Thus pruning on the shores of the Mediterranean is bound to differ enormously from that done, say, in Devonshire. As my friend Mr. Edward Hyams points out, however, in his book The Vineyards of England, published by Messrs. Faber and Faber, there are certain general rules which must be borne in mind.

A vine can be cut hard year after year without there being hardly any increase in height, though there will be an increase in girth. In addition, vines in this country, because of the climate, are usually pruned harder than those on the Mediterranean. The fruit is borne on the new wood; that is to say, the wood made that season.

You prune, therefore, to get new young wood produced, though this may be thinned out so as to leave the desired number of young branches. This thinning out is done because the heavier the crop the greater the difficulty there is in ripening. Again, the nearer to the ground the bunches are found the better the ripening. Too near the soil and they may be attacked by botrytis, too far away and they may not ripen as they should. I believe that 18 inches from the soil is ideal.

In all cases it is most important to spread the roots out evenly and only to plant them about 4 inches below the surface of the soil. The earth must he trodden in firmly-this is important and it does mean, therefore, that one can only plant when the soil is not too sticky. After the planting, when the soil is raked down level, the bone meal is applied.

Some people allow two canes to develop each year: they cut one back hard and they train the other one round. This does ensure a stronger growth and the original bearing rod can then be cut right the way back, so as to prevent it growing again.

The Operation known as Pruning

For years I carried a non-clasping knife in a sheath on my belt because I found it steadier. After a number of years the knife with a closing blade is apt to get loose at the rivets, and then it wobbles. The blade should have an overall length in either case of 7 or 8 inches.

Narrow blades are provided for getting in between V-shaped crotches formed by two branches growing out of the main trunk close together. It is also possible to buy a saw with a slightly curved blade which acts chiefly with a downward pull. For renovating neglected orchards, these curved blades are often fitted to a long handle, so that a pruner can use them when standing on the ground, and thus saw off a branch some way up.

All saws must be kept sharpened, and the teeth must be properly set. There are hand tooth-setting tools which can be bought for this purpose, while the edges of the teeth can be filed to keep them sharp. It always helps if a little oil is applied to the blade, so as to enable the saw to slide through the wood swiftly.

There are two main kinds of long-handled pruners. The first consists of a pair of Rolcut secateurs fixed to the end of a long, light, smooth pole, with a suitable wire operating one of the handles. A movable wooden handle is then fixed near the base of the pole, with the result that it is possible to cut off a shoot quite high up while the pruner is standing on terra firma. It is often used for pruning half- standard trees.

When big branches have to be removed it is necessary to use a sharp saw. This should have a blade 8 to 10 inches long, and the teeth should be set wide so that they cut through the green wood readily. I often use a double-edged saw, with U teeth on one blade and finer V-shaped teeth on the other blade.

At the same time the laterals growing on the main stem should be cut back to within an inch of their base, again to just above a bud. The following year such growths should be cut out altogether. If the pruning has been properly done, and the weather is kind, each of these three pruned-back branches should produce two more strong growths, and so at the beginning of the third year there should be at least six branches instead of three. Once again these should be well spaced around the tree.

Phalaenopsis Tips

Phragmipediums, like paphiopedilums, are also known as slipper orchids. However, there is no slipper orchid alliance as appears within the other major orchid groups, because phragmipediums will not interbreed with similar-looking, related genera. This is surprising when we consider the similarity between the flowers, especially among the multi-flowered paphiopedilums. The plants resemble the paphiopedilums, with their large, tufted growths.

Phragmipediums are mainly terrestrial or lithophytic plants, originating from South America, where they number possibly less than 20 species. The genus remained in the background of orchid cultivation until the last quarter of the 20th century, when a sensational new discovery revolutionized this previously drab-coloured genus. This new introduction was the famed

Phragmipedium besseae, a plant with a flower of such brilliant red that it caused a sensation wherever it was seen. Its natural home was on the sheer rock faces of the inaccessible mountainous regions of Peru and Ecuador, and it was this precarious and impossible-to-reach habitat that kept the species under nature’s wraps for so long. Invisible from the ground, it was only discovered when spotted from a helicopter flying over the area on a plant-hunting expedition.

By the end of the 20th century, most of its former sites had been systematically stripped of these precious plants, which were quickly spread around the world. Today, this one plant has projected the genus to a high profile not previously enjoyed. Numerous red hybrids have resulted that are now at the forefront of all Phragmipedium breeding. We have yet to see the full potential this species is capable of reaching. The majority of hybrids raised using the red-flowered Phragmipedium besseae have predictably produced blooms in the red to orange range. These are largepouched, short-petalled, nicely balanced flowers, and are in sharp contrast to the species Phragmipedium caudatum and its old hybrid P. Grande, which possess extremely long, ribbon-like, twisting petals that reach down for 30cm (12in) or more.

Phalaenopsis can bloom at a time, and it is not unusual for them to bloom two or three times in away and to remain in bloom for mare – It is important, however, that they continues to make new leaves at time as flowering. If too many leaves shed, you should cut off any spikes and allow the plant to grow at until it has three or four leaves allowing it to produce flowers.

Give them the room they require and they will reward you with plenty of flowers. Temperature for Phragmipediums is Intermediate-growing. Grow in 15-20cm (6-8in) pots of coarse bark chips or Rockwool. Water freely throughout the year to keep the roots evenly moist. Feed at every other watering. Provide shade in summ and give more light in winter. Height is 30-60cm (1-2ft)