Removing Lawn Moss Creates the Best Garden Lawns

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Beautiful garden lawns, as smooth and dense as bowling greens, are many gardeners’ dream. This dream can come true if you create perfect conditions and removing lawn moss is one of them.

Lawns are one of the most popular garden features, and for good reasons. A lawn can draw together a garden’s flowerbeds and borders, focal points and ornaments into a harmonious whole. An established, well-tended lawn provides a background of green all year round. In the growing season it offers cool, restful relief next to the brighter colours of flowers, and provides textural contrast to the bolder forms of branches and foliage. In winter, a lawn may well be the only source of green colour in the garden.

An uninterrupted stretch of grass provides a marvellous surface for recreation, whether it is kicking a ball around or sunbathing. Lawns are also particularly suitable for toddlers, allowing them to be adventurous without suffering cuts or grazed knees from hard surfaces.

However, there are also some drawbacks. If you are starting a garden lawn from scratch, it takes lots of painstaking preparation – levelling, removing debris and weeds, fertilizing, then seeding or turfing. Unlike most trees and shrubs, which, once established, more or less look after themselves, garden lawns require careful watering, mowing and feeding to keep them looking good. A poorly kept lawn gives the garden a neglected appearance.

Some grasses are more tolerant of shade than others, but no lawn will thrive in deep shade, especially under trees, where roots and the overhanging canopy of leaves make the soil bone-dry and starved of nutrients. Nor will garden lawns thrive in waterlogged soil, although some grasses are more tolerant of damp soil than others.

Most lawns are flat or gently sloping, but, depending on the soil type, you can have one on a steeper slope – a grassy bank, for instance, can make an attractive feature.

Garden lawns can also be sunken, to form a sheltered seating area and create a feeling of intimacy. However, small sunken lawns can end up as water gardens unless the soil is very free draining or there is a soak-away.

Raised garden lawns can add interest to a flat garden, while providing informal seating on the retaining wall. Small raised lawns, however, look odd and dry out quickly in hot weather. With raised and sunken lawns, easy access for a mower is important.

Whatever style of lawn you choose, keeping it velvety and green is important if you still have that dream in mind – lawn moss can be a problem and will need resolving.

Industrial Furniture Moves Into Chic Decor

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Gaining popularity for non-industrial uses because of the design elements it offers, industrial furniture is moving out of industrial environments and into dining rooms and dens. Making especially big moves in vintage circles, A-frames and wood-backed metal chairs are turning up as dining room tables and antique bar stools. Scissor lift coffee tables are starting conversations in chic living rooms and basic metal industrial chairs are brightening sidewalk cafes, thanks to nothing more than a fresh coat of paint.

Once left to rust or rot and be melted or broken down into raw materials, old industrial furniture is finding new life in contemporary interior design. Repurposed as unique, distinctive household furnishings and art pieces, industrial tables, chairs, shelving, and random components are proving more useful than ever. Little features like caster wheels make bookcases popular, with industrial shelves hung between jointed pipes. The potential uses for this furniture that once was confined to labs and warehouses are countless.

Consumers Seek Durability and Convenience in Industrial Furniture

Necessarily durable for its industrial uses, this newly chic furniture appeals to consumers in part because of the strong materials used to construct it. It is hard to beat steel if you want table legs that can withstand the impact of toy cars, cat claws, skateboards, and the like. Increasingly opting for new rather than used industrial strength home furnishings, consumers are also looking for convenience.

While the vintage decor set may be willing to either accept the sometimes-shabby condition of this furniture or restore it themselves, the majority prefer to buy it new. This much easier and more convenient way to acquire their home furnishings is to look at new products, even if their plan is to assemble pipes into a coffee table base. They are also attracted by the most basic details that provide convenience, whether wheels for heavy furniture or the adjustable height of a dining room table.

Urban Dwellers Make Urban Decor Appealing With Industrial Designs

With so many consumers living in high-rises of concrete and steel, it is no surprise that many of them consciously attempt to see the beauty in their urban environment. That explains why cityscapes are popular for wall art and grunge is welcome on custom rugs and bathroom towels. Urban energy is sought after, witness hip-hop and rap, and that same desire to make something special of urban stimulation leads consumers to want industrial furniture.

It is also hard to argue that there are home furnishings more unique than a scissor lift table or a sculpture made from industrial components. Also sparked by congested urban environments, the need to stand out is satisfied with an industrial work of art or a much talked-about piece of furniture. Not only signaling unique individuals, industrial furniture also fits with the increasing environmental awareness of consumers. This contributes to both the repurposing of vintage industrial items and the desire for long-lasting industrial materials in new furnishings.

Taken together, there are compelling reasons for the seemingly inexplicable surge of interest in industrial furniture. The addition of homeowners looking for unique furniture to industrial users is significantly widening the customer base for retailers of these products. No longer just a staple of industrial working environments, this furniture is bringing a long-lasting twist to home decor.

Reclaimed Hardwood Flooring Makes a Lot of Sense

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I expect many people don’t know about reclaimed hardwood flooring. It is sometimes also called antique flooring. It is flooring that is made from hardwood that is no longer wanted. It is a perfect example of how recycling makes good environmental sense.

The great forests of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America are being logged and cleared at a frightening speed. Within the life time of a twenty-something all the great forests of the world could be consigned to history books. Without forests we as a species are headed for ecological disaster.

One of the main reasons for logging is the demand from developed countries for hardwood timber that can be used for construction, flooring and furniture making. We need to slow down and even stop this hardwood demand.

The problem is that hardwood flooring is allergen free and looks great. It is more stylish and healthier than carpeting. If you don’t want to carpet your room what can you do to be environmentally friendly? There are three alternatives. First you can use hardwood taken from a sustainably managed forest. Secondly, you can use strand woven bamboo flooring instead of hardwood flooring. And thirdly, you can use reclaimed hardwood for flooring.

Reclaimed hardwood comes from many sources. Often it is from an existing floor. This is called antique flooring. Often it is from a building destined to be demolished. It is from landfill sites. It is from park waste. It is from pulled down barns. It is from mine shafts. It is even from the bottom of lakes and rivers. It is surprising how much hardwood can be sourced that has been discarded or lost. Cities produce a wealth of useful refuse. So do farms.

It is a simple matter to collect the unwanted hardwood and kiln dry it then mill it into planks suitable for flooring. The great advantage of this is that the hardwood can be nationally or locally sourced and this reduces the carbon input necessary to recycle the wood into flooring.

From a flooring point of view, reclaimed hardwood flooring is more dimensionally stable than new growth wood that often swells and shrinks after it is installed. On top of this, it has a unique character very different from new hardwood. Over the years the hardwood deepens in colour and complexity. The reclaimed hardwood also often has a variety of nail holes, saw marks and worm holes that add a fascinating new aesthetic dimension to the floor. Every reclaimed hardwood floor looks unique. It can make a room.

Finally, because of wood diseases and insect attack many classic American hardwoods are now hard to find. Elms were devastated by Dutch elm disease. Black locust trees have been ruined as a commercial timber by borer insects. Because of this it is often easier and cheaper to find reclaimed elm and black locust.

So, because reclaimed hardwood flooring is sourced locally; because it is as hard and dense as new growth hardwood; and because it looks great when installed in your home, it makes a lot of sense to buy a reclaimed hardwood floor.

Electric Shaver

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Electric shavers are great to use as opposed to the old conventional razor shave, as one does not sustain burns and cuts which you always have from razor blades. And we will now discuss electric shavers as there are various different types. When it comes to electric shavers technology has advanced to an extent that it gives shaving a whole new meaning. There are shavers that are battery operated and others that are re-chargeable.

There are also shavers that need to be plugged in while shaving but the best electric shavers are the cordless rechargeable shavers. These shavers are hassle free and give you a perfect clean shave and they can be left on the charger to recharge making sure that your shaver is always ready when you need it.

Electric shavers that has become very popular is the self cleaning shaver this model is easy to use and after shaving one does not have to spend time cleaning the shaver. These shavers are well suited to those that live in the fast lane as one does not have to spend time shaving the old conventional way with messy shaving creams and razors that slip and cut the skin. The old razors also caused rashes and burns to the skin.

When out shopping for a shaver you need to look for special features such as flexible heads which make it easy to shave that hard to get to places as a flexible head is designed to mould with your facial contours. This type of shave also adjusts when shaving up and down the face as the head moves in the same direction as your hand movements.

Another important factor is to look for well known and trusted brand names even though you may pay more but it is well worth it as brands like Phillips, Braun, LG and many others have been around for many years and a good electric shaver will last you for many years to come.

Very few men still have beards and moustaches as men nowadays like to have that clean shaven look and shavers are part and parcel of any mans grooming kit even those that do have beards and moustaches as they inevitably need to trim them. Most women prefer clean shaven men as those with beards and moustaches give women rashes on their faces. And one has got to admit men that are clean shaven are far more attractive than those with facial hair.

For men that are on the go and travel a lot there is a rechargeable mini travel electric shaver which is the well known Eltron El-3030. This electric shaver is lightweight and small only measuring 4″ long and 1″ thick so it ideal to slip into your overnight bag and when you get off your plan after a long journey you look fresh and clean shaven.

From the comfort of your own home you can go online and browse through the many different sites that offer electric shavers which will give you a chance to see what will be the most suitable shaver and at the same time you can compare prices.