Unique Ways to Improve the Garden

People take pride in their gardens. However, there isn’t much variety these days. Discover secret ways to improve your garden by reading these tips.

Unique Ways to Improve the Garden 

Mark is a renowned expert on property inspection. He’s currently the content lead of Safe and Sound Property Inspections. In this article, he talks about various ways to improve one’s garden.

These days, there isn’t much originality when it comes to gardens. People usually just copy from their neighbours or check the internet for what’s trending. If you want to add drama to your garden and divert from the norm, check out some of our suggestions below.

Stone Paths

These are really cool and rather simple to build. They add a traditional and earthly look to the garden. First, you’ll need to layout the path. As soon as you have decided on a path, determine if you want to create elevated steps or simply a flat surface with stones along sand. Elevated steps, like in the image below, are great if your garden is on a lower or higher elevation than the house. Otherwise, a simple stone and sand path would suffice.

You can also go with simple gravel paths. These are even easier to setup and don’t cost as much.

Garden Shed

Not all gardens have sheds. People don’t often see them as having any other use except for storage. On the contrary, garden sheds help to personalize garden spaces and improve the overall appeal of the garden with its own design. Garden sheds are available in the market and can also be done with the help of DIY kits and tutorials.

Patio

There are tons of things you can do with a patio.

Garden Room

If you’ve got a thing for enclosed spaces, you can invest in a garden room. Having an extra room not adjoining the house is great. You can use it as an outdoor gym or hold parties there. If you want peace and quiet, you can even turn it into a cosy home office. If there are lots of kids in the family, you can also turn it into an entertainment hub and fit it with its own fridge, pool tables, board games and the like.

Dining Area

For those prefer open spaces, the patio would work great as a second dining area. You can fill the patio with gravel and get a dining set that is built for outdoor use. If you opt to cement and tile the area, that would also work.

Lounging Area

We’ve also seen some patios that feature only benches and chairs. Fresh air abounds in the garden and if it’s quiet in your neighbourhood, it would make the perfect place to simply relax or read a book.

Theme and Ornaments

Focusing on a theme is something not often done in gardens. Sure, there are those that have tulip gardens, orchards and the like. The theme there is clustering the same plants together. Another way to go about it is to put an actual “theme” in place like Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs, Shrek, Transformers and the like. You can easily do this by buying ornamental figurines and spreading them all over the garden. We’ve seen all sorts of gardens that have different ornaments like angel statues, a shark protruding from the soil, mushroom houses, gnomes and the like. Let your imagination run free and you’ll be surprised what you get.

There are tons of simple and challenging things you can do with your garden. One thing to consider though is if the changes could possibly ruin some aspects of the property. If you haven’t given this some thought, you should consider getting property inspection. Doing this helps you assess if the changes you are planning are feasible. Things that could be discovered include termites hiding in trees, poor topsoil for gardening, buried plumbing in the way of the shed and the like. These are only some examples of the potential problems property inspection can detect.

Image Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Author: Mark Brandon

Handy Dandy Guy and is extremely career-focused and family-oriented. He is also a DIY builder with plenty of experience in home renovation and inspection. Whenever he learns something new, he shares it online through blogs hoping to help folks. If you have any questions, you can reach him via Google+.Twitter

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The Sweets of Ramadan

For Muslims all over India, the holy month of Ramadan is in full swing. The next few weeks will be a time of fasting from sunrise to sunset, for thinking pious thoughts and for devotion to prayer. This time of abstinence from food and drink is believed to provide Muslims with the gifts of moderation, modesty, patience and allows people to experience what life can be like for the needy. Islam is a religion that puts a great emphasis on giving to those less fortunate and Ramadan is an excellent time to put yourself in the shoes of those that may have very little and appreciate their plight.

However, it is not all quiet on the culinary front for the entire period. Muslims can take their morning meal, or suhoor, before the sun rises and their iftar, or evening meal, after sunset. To provide a gastronomical reward for these times of piety, many practising Muslims will enjoy a range of sweet and delicious treats at iftar – often sharing these sugary sweets with family and friends.

Crumbling mithai, sugary halwa and dates that melt in the mouth like warm caramel, play an integral role at an Indian iftar. After all, this is a country with an inventive and dedicated sweet tooth, a country that views sweets and desserts as a symbol of happiness, hospitality and goodwill. No special occasion, wedding or festival is complete without a sprinkling of sugar to sweeten the affair. Fortunately, Indian cuisine is pretty adept at coming up with suitable sweet offerings – after all, an Indian meal simply isn't complete without a shot of sugar at the end.

Here are some of our favourites Ramadan sweets:

·         Sheer khurma

image:en.wikipedia.org

This creamy delight can be enjoyed at suhoor or iftar. It's a form of sweet porridge, created with the unusual ingredient of vermicelli. The noodles are lightly fried in ghee before full fat milk is poured into the pan to thicken. Nuts, dates and other dried fruits are added, as well as sugar to taste, forming a luxurious dish certainly worth fasting for.

·         Khajoori

image:pinterest.com

For a comfort food guaranteed to warm your heart at iftar, try a khajoori. These tasty, fried dumplings are created from a dough formed with flour, semolina and milk. These little dough patties are then deep-fried in hot ghee and eaten warm, often with a steaming cup of chai tea.

·         Meetha samosa

image:youtube.com

Forget the spiced potato or shredded meat fillings you might expect from the typical Indian samosa; a meetha version of this popular snack will satisfy those sweet tooth cravings. Stuffed with condensed milk, grated coconut, dried fruit and nuts and a smattering of spices including cardamom and cinnamon, this parcel of pleasure provides a welcome reward after a hard day of fasting.

·         Phirni

 

image:wikihow.com

Another creamy concoction that experiences great popularity at Ramadan, phirni utilises ground rice with cream, sugar, milk, rosewater and a few strands of saffron on top. Filling, sweet and satisfying, this dish will leave you satiated and ready for a good night's sleep.

Experience classic Indian desserts as well as those given a contemporary twist at Veeraswamy, one of London's best Indian fine-dining restaurants.

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Get Organized For Family Vacations

Family vacations are always a great way to reconnect with your loved ones, enjoy and relax. However, unless your family vacation is well planned out, there may be some frustration and frazzle, with your family longing for their comfort of home, peace and quiet.

To avoid such unpleasant situations, prepare properly this year! Whether it's plane travel, car trips, or close-to-home "stay-cation" trips, we've put together a list of things you should think about before embarking on your family adventure!

What To Do Before You Go?

All good trips start before the engine’s started. Meaning, just after you’ve picked out your location and chose the date of your travel, you should start slowly preparing for the adventure ahead of you.

This means taking into consideration all potential mishaps that can happen. If you are traveling with kids (and we are assuming you are) you will need to be extra careful and cautious.

Here are some things to do before you hit the road:

Set up a Travel Central

This basically means deciding on one place where all of your travel information, travel documents and maps will be put at. This is how at border lines you won’t have to sweat trying to find all the documentation.

Include contact information for airlines, travel agents, car rental agencies, passport and frequent flyer numbers. It would be good to have contact information and address of the hotel you are staying at in there, too.

Pack as light as possible

And while you want to look stunning every single day while at your vacation, and you want your kids to have cute changes of outfits, truth is you’ll be needing probably half of what you’ve initially planned to pack. After all, it’s a vacation! You aren’t walking a fashion show in Paris, but going away for a chill time with your family.

Pack the necessary items like clean changes of underwear, a few summer dresses for you, a few shorts-and-shirts combinations for your hubby and your kids’ favorite items. Naturally, you’ll bring swimsuits too, beach towels and other beach items you need and that’s that. Remember, when traveling, less is more!

Bring your first-aid and personal care kits

Even though you are traveling to a place that probably has a pharmacy at every corner, it’s important you pack medication you know some of your family members might need. This involves allergy medication and such similar aids.

A personal care kit for each family member is a must. However, don’t pack all products you use at home. Bring big-sized bottles of shampoo, shower gel, lotion and sun block. All family members will wash from those packs, no need to pile up.

Pack food

Just before you go, pack some food and snacks for the road and keep them somewhere close. Both you and your little ones may get hungry or thirsty while traveling, so it’s smart to have some solid food with you, sweets and snacks. Fresh bottled water and juice boxes are necessary too.

Plus, don’t forget to pack some wet wipes!

What To Do On The Road?

Depending on how long your trip is going to be, and assuming you are traveling by car, you need to think of the entertainment for the road.

If it were only you and your hubby, things would be pretty easy. But, your little ones will want to have their fun while traveling and the best thing to do is, well, indulge them.

·         Come up with a game plan

The best way to banish backseat boredom without much effort is to keep your kids occupied with games. Some of the awesome games to play are I Spy, Road Trip Bingo, License Plate Game… and plenty similar ones.

·         Bring books

If your kids are old enough to read, bring their favorite book to read while driving to the gorgeous landscapes of the countries you are driving through. If they don’t like to read, you can always bring their tablets.

·         Music matters

Everything is better and easier with music on!  Play your children’s favorite music artists on your Pioneer car stereo and let the fun begin. There are probably so little things in this world as cute as hearing your children sing along to their favorite songs and get almost all the lyrics wrong!

We have hopefully helped you get an idea of what family vacation preparations should be like. We hope you’ll enjoy every single moment of your time spent with your loved ones!

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