Improve Your Home and Garden
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It is important to know the volume of water in your backyard pond for a couple of reasons. When you are constructing your water feature, you will need to know the volume it will hold in order to get the correct size pump to recirculate the water effectively. Poor water circulation will result in a [...]
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But before you go racing to the phone to call the lawyer on TV, know these facts! Like humans, animals can be victims of direct asbestos exposure or second-hand exposure when an individual who works around asbestos brings the toxic dust into their home on their clothes. In the 1970’s, a connection was found between [...]
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When people think about their homes, they often do not realize what a huge impact gutters can have on the physical condition of the home. If your rain gutters and downspouts are working properly they will prevent roof and fascia board damage as well as prevent basement flooding by re-routing water a safe distance away [...]
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Throughout North America, many gardens are graced with wildlife including beautiful blue birds. In some regions they are very common and in others they are rare finds. Some like the Indigo Bunting or Eastern Bluebird, are vibrant blue while others are on the grey side of blue. In either case, these jewels brighten up any [...]
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Okay, I could have named this the top ten bird twitterers or tweeters or simply bird tweets. The possibilities were endless with this one. But with birding or bird watching being ranked as one of the top hobbies right behind gardening, I thought it would be interesting to find out how many people are tweeting [...]
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I was remodeling an old farm house in McMinnville, Oregon this weekend and the attic insulation rained down on me. I thought it looked a lot like the vermiculite we use in gardening but never heard of it being used as insulation. Six hours later I am writing this blog about the link between this [...]
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How do you know when to replace windows? After all, the investment is sometimes large and the choices of replacement windows overwhelming. You can chose from wood or vinyl, double pane or triple pane, and the list goes on. Much of the decision will depend on your budget; however there are many reasons why [...]
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Container Gardening Combinations for Flower Pots I love container gardening but the usual plant combinations seen in magazines do not interest me and make for boring flower pots…in my opinion. Sure, they are colorful, but they lack that personalized touch for which I look. Maybe it’s that plant pots with annuals seem like a waste. Maybe it’s [...]
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Creating a garden that attracts birds is a relatively simple task. It consists of supplying them with three basic elements: food, cover, and water. Most homeowners start with, and sometimes end with, putting out a bird feeder with cheap bird seed. Then they wonder why only a few species of birds show up, why the [...]
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In these economic times, every penny counts. As property values nosedive, how do you know if your property tax assessment is too high? A better question is, if your home is assessed too high, how do you get the assessment lowered? We just discovered a new service called Lower My Assessment that takes the guesswork [...]
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The fourth annual Better Living Show will be held Friday, March 25 – Sunday, March 27, 2011, at the Portland Expo Center. Free to the public, this fun and entertaining 3-day festival is designed to empower attendees to become more thoughtful consumers and lessen their impact on the environment by learning about high-performance, earth-friendly products [...]
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Over the years I have collected more than my share of gardening books. But with space running out on my bookshelves, I have become more discerning. No more pretty books for me – I want usable information! So when I saw the cover of Sue Reed’s book, Energy-Wise Landscape Design: A New Approach for your [...]
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Creeping Winter Savory is an underutilized culinary herb that belongs to the genus Satureja. The word Satureja, simply translated, means savory. Creeping Winter Savory Satureja montana ‘Illyrica’ is low growing and makes an attractive addition to rock gardens or cascading over the edge of containers or pots. In addition it makes an attractive front border [...]
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