Decorating your home is about decorating both the inside and the outside of your house, even more so if you have a garden! Most people go on a decoration frenzy when it’s the holiday season and that’s wonderful. But what if you want to decorate your home and gardens at any time of the year?
Italian and Greek food wouldn’t be as appealing without the smell of oregano adding a pungent treble to the bass note of garlicy aroma in most Mediterranean recipes. That oregano smell has attracted fans across the world and throughout history. Ancient Greeks used oregano as a treatment for respiratory infections. Ancient Egyptian herbalists used it
One thing you see lots of in Mediterranean gardens are climbing vines. Mediterranean climbers grow up walls or over pergolas on the back of the house. Some of these pergolas are simply magical, with the ’roof’ made only of rough branches, all tangled with knobby grapevines and bunches of fruit dripping down. Without these climbing
A Middle Eastern garden is often called a “Paradise Garden,” because in recent centuries, they represented the Garden of Eden and the descriptions of the heavenly Paradise found in holy texts. Because of their association with religious themes, they consist chiefly of specific elements important to the culture and region. But while many modern Middle
Stuffed full of implements, used to nurture seedlings, or just a place for you to escape to and work on projects, garden sheds are one of those things we’d all love to have in our backyard. Whether it’s used for hobbies, as a workshop or for storage, most people who have sheds customize them depending
How to Protect Plants Plants are the basis of all life forms on this planet and so it just makes sense that we protect as many species of plants as possible. Plants are the primary element of the environment’s food cycles and all other nature-based cycles. As plants are the backbone of our ecosystem, it
Many people wait for the weather to become warmer before planting their vegetable gardens. But you don’t have to. You can start your herb gardens indoors this year. When choosing what herbs to plant, the first thing to consider is which herbs grow effectively indoors. One great choice is basil. Only a few herbs can
Trees are great things to have in your yard. They clean the air, provide shade and privacy, are great for climbing, and are beautiful to look at. While many trees are just too big to think about growing inside, there are some trees that make wonderful accents to the inside of your home. Here are
Myrtle (Myrtus) has been grown as a decorative plant for thousands of years, and yet it is still a rarity indoors. The small oval leaves are shiny and aromatic – the white flowers appear in large numbers in summer. In the fall, purple berries appear. In midwinter, many of the shoots are crowned by a series of radiating pink stems that
Impatiens have been extremely popular as a house plant for generations. Cuttings can root very easily, and the plants will, with proper care, bloom almost all year round. This non-stop blooming habit is the reason for its common name – Busy Lizzie. There are three basic groups of impatiens. Until recently, only the traditional types were grown – spreading,
Dianthus barbatus, commonly known as Sweet William, is a colorful, scented flower native to Southern Europe. Sweet William belongs to the family of carnations, and there are more than 300 species of this flower. Revered for centuries, the origins of this flower can be traced back to the Roman and Greek eras. Sweet William is
If you have a big property, it’s hot outside, and that grass just keeps growing, then you’ve got your work cut out for you. They say that two things are forever, death and taxes, but whoever said that seems to have forgotten about mowing the lawn, because that seems to be endless too. Luckily, Honda
