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	<title>Patio and Gardening news and updates &#187; Gardening</title>
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	<description>Garden, patio and outdoor living tips and ideas.</description>
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		<title>Become An Expert Gardener With These Top Tips</title>
		<link>http://www.nakedpatio.com/newsupdates/become-an-expert-gardener-with-these-top-tips/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nakedpatio.com/newsupdates/become-an-expert-gardener-with-these-top-tips/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:32:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rusty Shackleford</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gardening Tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gardening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hobbies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[outdoors]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nakedpatio.com/newsupdates/become-an-expert-gardener-with-these-top-tips/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Learning about gardening is a long process. You will become skilled if you invest enough time and efforts. Now that you have found this list of tips, hopefully, you can come out a little more informed when it comes to gardening, so that you can refine your methods and become a great gardener.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Learning about gardening is a long process. You will become skilled if you invest enough time and efforts. Now that you have found this list of tips, hopefully, you can come out a little more informed when it comes to gardening, so that you can refine your methods and become a great gardener.</p>
<p>You should think about planting evergreens that yield berries in your garden. They add color to your yard, throughout the year. There is quite a variety of plants that will give your garden a splash of color during winter, including the American Cranberrybush, American Holly, Common Snowberry or Winterberry.</p>
<p>A small shed or an area in your garage make the perfect storage facility for garden tools. Leaving valuable tools out might tempt someone to steal them.</p>
<p>If you want an organic way to weed your garden, try &#8220;boiling&#8221; them. A boiling pot of water is one the best and safest herbicides you can find. Literally pour the water on the weeds, avoiding any wanted plants near them, and watch the weeds die over time. Boiling water will actually hurt the roots, and it will prevent the weeds from growing.</p>
<p>Bulbs will give you wonderful flowers that you can enjoy in early spring and right through the summer. Bulbs are hardy, easy to grow into flowers, and will blossom for several years. Bulbs bloom during different seasons, if you pick them carefully you will have flowers almost all year.</p>
<p>Tempt your cat away from the plants he has been bothering by planting catnip or wheat grass near them. Another option is to place offensively smelling objects on the topsoil near and around the plants you want to protect. Citrus peels or mothballs are a couple of examples.</p>
<p>A good fertilizer is important to add nutrients to your soil. Manure helps your plants grow. Make sure you use a product that is commercially composted so you don&#8217;t risk adding pathogens to your garden. Of all the fertilizing options available, it doesn&#8217;t really matter which one you choose as long as you use something.</p>
<p>Utilize fall colors. Some deciduous shrubs and trees have gorgeous foliage in the fall, turning red or orange and even yellow. The change in color happens as a result of the plants ceasing to produce chlorophyll, which makes plants green. Make sure your plants get as much sun as possible so they can give more vivid colors. Good plant and shrub choices include maple, burning bush, boston ivy, barberry and chestnut.</p>
<p>Protect your delicate deciduous shrubs from harsh elements. Fragile shrubs, that are planted in pots, should be covered to protect them during the cold season. Tie the tops of the canes together; then take a sheet and cover the wigwam loosely. This method is superior to covering plants in plastic, because air can freely circulate, which prevents rotting.</p>
<p>Grow wheat or cat grass around the plants your cat likes nibbling. Alternatively, you can try putting mothballs, citrus peel or anything else with an odor that cats find distasteful in the soil surrounding the plants.</p>
<p>For a garden that thrives, choose the right type of soil. Your soil may not be correct, but it depends on what sorts of plants you want to grow. It can happen where one artificial area is designated to have just one type of soil.</p>
<p>So, you can see that these suggestions are rather simple and easy to follow. Now that you have learned what to do, it is time to apply it. Observe the response of your plants to the various techniques you try. If one thing fails, give another a go. Your neighbors will envy your garden if you practice patience.</p>
<p>One of the best ways to regain your health and energy is to get outside. Grab some <a href="http://campinggadgets.org/">camping gadgets</a> and a <a href="http://campinggadgets.org/dorcy-41-4750-180-lumen-high-flux-led-cyber-light-flashlight-review/">flashlight</a> and head out to the national park nearest you and start to enjoy life on your own terms.</p>
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		<title>Disabled Grants for Stairlifts Wheelchair lifts</title>
		<link>http://www.nakedpatio.com/newsupdates/disabled-grants-for-stairlifts-wheelchair-lifts/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nakedpatio.com/newsupdates/disabled-grants-for-stairlifts-wheelchair-lifts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:41:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Bennet</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gardening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Disabled]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Elderly Care]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Grants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health Care]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[retirement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nakedpatio.com/newsupdates/disabled-grants-for-stairlifts-wheelchair-lifts/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A "Disabled Facilities Grant" is a local council grant to help towards the cost of changing your home to let you continue to live there. A grant is paid when the council considers that changes are important to meet your needs, and that the work is reasonable and practical. A note of warning Grants can take almost 12 months or more to be approved]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A &#8220;Disabled Facilities Grant&#8221; is a local council grant to help towards the cost of changing your home to let you continue to live there. A grant is paid when the council considers that changes are important to meet your needs, and that the work is reasonable and practical. A note of warning Grants can take almost 12 months or more to be approved </p>
<p> <b> Who can claim for a Disabled Facilities Grant? </b> </p>
<p> You can claim if you, or somebody living in your property/home, are disabled and you, or the person on whose behalf you are applying, are either the owner or renter (including licensees) of the property. You can certify that you, or the individual on whose behalf you are applying, mean to occupy the property as your/their only or main residence throughout the grant period &#8211; currently 5 years. A landlord may apply on behalf of a disabled tenant </p>
<p> Disabled Facilities Grants are available countrywide! England, Wales and Northern Ireland only. Scottish residents should contact the social services dept of their local council for info on any grants that may be available </p>
<p> <b> What can the grant funding be utilised for? </b>   </p>
<p> A grant can be used for adaptions to give you better freedom of movement into and around your home and/or to provide essential facilities within it. If you are disabled, acceptable types of work include: </p>
<p> Widening doors and installing ramps, Providing or improving access to rooms and facilities &#8211; for example, by installing <a href="http://www.stairliftlocator.co.uk">Stair lifts</a> or providing a downstairs rest room. Changing heating or lighting controls to make them easier to use. </p>
<p> Improving access to and movement around the home to enable you to care for someone else who lives in the property,eg a child. An occupational therapist will look at your circumstances and can advocate the sort of modifications needed. </p>
<p> <b> How much are you able to claim? </b> </p>
<p> The amount paid is generally based mostly on a financial assessment &#8211; a &#8216;means test &#8216; &#8211; of your average weekly income in relation to your outgoings. There&#8217;s no means testing for families of disabled children under 19 years old </p>
<p> Means testing will consider savings above a certain limit. Certain benefits including Disability Living Allowance and Earnings Support are generally ignored. If you&#8217;ve got a partner, your combined income will be assessed jointly. Capital is included in the means test. The 1st 6,000 of savings is overlooked. </p>
<p> A selection of premiums and allowances is utilized for all necessary spending, for example, lease/mortgage and personal spending. Actual outgoings aren&#8217;t taken into consideration. Dependent on the outcome of this assessment the amount of financial assistance offered can fluctuate from 0 to 100 % of the cost. </p>
<p> <b> Maximum grant amount </b> </p>
<p>The maximum amount of grant that a council is required to pay is 25,000 in Northern Ireland, 30,000 in England and 36,000 in Wales per application less any considered contribution from you. If the price of the eligible works is more, the council can use optional powers to increase the quantity. A Disabled Facilities Grant will not affect any benefits you are presently receiving.</p>
<p>For information on Disabled Grants and <a href="http://www.stairlifttrader.com/outdoor-stairlifts-stairlift.htm">Outside Stairlifts</a> Please visit our Website for <a href="http://www.stairlifttrader.com/stairlift-advice-faq.htm">Stairlifts Advice</a></p>
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		<item>
		<title>Easy methods to make a minimal back garden seem bigger</title>
		<link>http://www.nakedpatio.com/newsupdates/easy-methods-to-make-a-minimal-back-garden-seem-bigger/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nakedpatio.com/newsupdates/easy-methods-to-make-a-minimal-back-garden-seem-bigger/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:55:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jacky Sanchez</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gardening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hobbies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home Garden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[small garden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[small garden design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[small gardens]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nakedpatio.com/newsupdates/easy-methods-to-make-a-minimal-back-garden-seem-bigger/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In any little patio or garden, in which living space is at a premium, you might want to do whatever you can to produce the optical illusion of more room or space. You need to make your compact garden look as big as feasible avoiding things that make it start looking scaled-down. Happily there a few tricks that will help to make this happen while having your smaller garden feel all the more pleasant and large.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In any little patio or garden, in which living space is at a premium, you might want to do whatever you can to produce the optical illusion of more room or space. You need to make your compact garden look as big as feasible avoiding things that make it start looking scaled-down. Happily there a few tricks that will help to make this happen while having your smaller garden feel all the more pleasant and large.</p>
<p>1. Take advantage of coloring in the right way</p>
<p>Distinct colorings possess distinctive effects on the way you can see things. Warm hues (red, yellows and orange) as an example, come out to you, making you sense you are you&#8217;re nearer to precisely what you are looking at. Cooler colours (blue, greens and purple) are inclined to diminish and get you to believe that you&#8217;re further from the target. The trick within a smaller backyard garden is to try using plants or flowers together with warm tones towards the entrance of the patio or garden bed and flowers and plants with lighter or less hot colors toward the rear. The cooler hues should cause you to feel as though the garden area stretches more than it does. The contrary is true of dark vs . light or pale shades. Dark colorations diminish, providing the false impression of range. Whilst light colors allow the sense of less interesting depth, leading you to feel you&#8217;re closer. This will not just have to do with vegetation, you can decorate a distant wall surface a dim coloration or put a dark item toward the back, it should deceive you in to visualizing it really is deeper back and also the backyard garden probably will seem to be larger than it is.</p>
<p>2. Scale down outdoor furniture</p>
<p>One easy slip-up to prevent is to find outdoor furniture acceptable for the dimensions of the garden area. Simillar to inside an indoor area, if your furnishings are extremely big or substantial for the area it would engulf your room making it seem much smaller. You&#8217;ll find that you do not want to go to the other extreme though, with the use of furnishings that are too very small. That in turn will additionally have the home garden appear small sized and doll-like. An excellent technique is to utilize furniture pieces that will not trim your particular field of vision. You need to have the capacity to view beneath as well as over the item, or possibly even through it. To achieve this you should utilize seating having legs, that is just not very big and is particularly composed of a woven see through textile.</p>
<p>3. Generate reflections</p>
<p>The most effective solutions to easily double the amount size of your little back yard garden is by making use of decorative mirrors. A nicely put mirror should bounce sunshine and also your yard, creating the look of increased open space. A fantastic way to get the guest feeling your backyard garden is larger, is actually by making the looking glass blend to the back. That can be done by employing a large full-length looking glass and by covering the sides with vegetation or any other material. Though getting a small mirror could work. Using fresh water, like in a small echoing pond at the same time results in depth by highlighting lighting plus the surroundings. A superb strategy is to blend the two, by installing a line of water running in to the mirror, producing the illusion of a extensive canal which runs without end. There are a few things to make note of in advance of the installation of a mirror in it&#8217;s long-term place. First and foremost, make use of a decorative mirror that is definitely created for the great outdoors or otherwise it will likely not survive very well. Except if a shabby and bit more corroded appearance is precisely what that you are looking for. Second, if possible make an attempt to position the mirror facing from the pathway of the sun&#8217;s light. Or else someone could get blinded when a person looks directly at it. Or worse yet, you probably will have a stream of daylight aimed immediately into your home or next door neighbor&#8217;s.</p>
<p>Get more <a href="http://smallgardeningtips.tumblr.com/">small garden tips</a> and learn about <a href="http://www.articlealley.com/the-best-ways-to-help-make-a-modest-home-garden-seem-big-2411623.html">small garden design</a> at Small Garden Love.</p>
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