When most people buy patio furniture, they usually don’t give much thought as to the style. People tend to buy patio furniture that they can afford. As long as it is functional, it’s fine for them. However, if you want patio furniture that you can take pride in, if you want patio furniture that adds style and sophistication and if you want patio furniture your guests will fawn over, you should definitely choose wrought iron patio furniture.

Many Styles To Choose From

When you see a house surrounded with a wrought iron gate, automatically, you see that house as one with style. The same can be said with wrought iron patio furniture. The great part about wrought iron patio furniture is that you can get it in any style you wish. There are many styles of wrought iron patio furniture, you just have to know where to look for it.

Where To Find Wrought Iron Patio Furniture

You can try your local department or furniture store to see if they sell wrought iron patio furniture but if they don’t, let your fingers do the walking. Not with the phone book but rather with your computer’s keyboard. That’s right, you can find wrought iron patio furniture, and at great prices, on the internet. Simply do a search for wrought iron patio furniture and you’ll likely be faced with many choices of online merchants who can’t wait to sell you a set of patio furniture.  Read more...

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A patio can be a wonderful place to relax during the warm days of spring, summer and autumn; or all year if you live in warmer climes. At times when the lawn may be too wet or even muddy, the solid floor of a patio means you can sit outside even after heavy rain and make the most of the fresh air, and visual pleasure of your garden. You can even turn your patio into a patio garden to make it more interesting.

You can turn the plainest of patios into a patio garden with the good use of containers or outdoor planters. If you are starting from nothing, and designing and building (or having designed and built) a completely new patio, then it is worth giving the garden aspect of the patio some forethought.

The reason for the pre-planning is that you have an opportunity to create something very special with little extra expense beyond the foundation work and the patio floor. Here are just a few thoughts to build in at the design stage, so your patio garden can be more than just a flat area of paving slabs.

Colour Scheme for the Patio

When planning a new patio it is best to consider the colour scheme beyond just the colour of the paving slabs. If you want a patio garden, then you will need containers to grow plants in. Try to be sure that you can obtain containers or planters which blend well with the colour of the slabs. For example, light brown paving slabs above may look very nice, but are not so easy to blend in naturally with surroundings, or find complementary planters for.  Read more...

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Formal herb garden design gives an edge to the entire process of growing herbs in your home herb garden.

Designing an Herb Garden – Points to Remember

* If your garden is going to primarily consist of herbs for culinary uses, pick a spot near the kitchen to have herbs within easy reach while you are cooking.

* Proximity to the kitchen is not an issue if you are growing herbs for reasons other than to flavor your dishes or if you are mainly growing herbs to preserve them for later use.

* Choose a plot of land that receives lots of sunlight, which is critical for growing herbs.

* Deciding on the size of your  garden is a personal choice depending on how many herbs you want around you and the purpose for which it is grown.

* Small will suffice if the herbs are meant for a family of four. Large area is required if you are intending to use the herbs to preserve for later use, dyes, or potpourri.

Formal Herb Garden Plans

* While planning a formal herb garden design, keep in mind the complexity of not only designing but also maintaining various layouts with symmetry, knots and interweaving designs.

* Going for precise and structured lines will involve more precision in cutting and pruning the herbs that waver out of line.  Read more...

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When interior designers say the words “garden design”, they are crossing an invisible boundary – from interior to exterior. Historically, interior designers have focused exclusively on what lies within the home. But today some of London’s most prestigious interior design teams are starting to apply their wealth of knowledge and experience to garden schemes. The resulting whole-estate approach means that top interior designers can now offer homeowners full-service comprehensive expertise that covers every possible need. London is a splendid city in which to work as an interior designer who also focuses on gardens because it is so easy to find fabulous garden furniture, plantings and exterior illuminators from the many outstanding garden centres and wholesalers across the home counties.

If your London home is not far from a well-lit urban street, your interior designer may recommend more intense illuminators to create the designer impact you crave for your garden. By contrast, in the countryside outside London, moonlight may sometimes be sufficient to allow residents and guests to wander safely, but a touch of supplementary light may still be essential to brighten up an entrance or exit. Many interior designers recommend tungsten halogen illuminators, which guarantee the most real-looking colour and are suitable for most buildings. However, I would note that if your home is particularly large, a warmer light source, such as sodium, may be advisable. Metal halide illuminators tend to be very cool and they are therefore best for buildings in London’s most urban areas – this type of crisp snow-coloured light can prove highly dramatic in such settings. (If used in the countryside, guests may feel that the effect is slightly too cool and unfriendly. )  Read more...

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If you plan to harvest your herbs for a purpose-crafting, culinary, medicine-you will need a garden designed to make this easier. Garden centers and libraries have dozens of books full of traditional and modern herb garden designs. Productive herb garden designs have several things in common.

Herb gardens are attractive even when scattered and disorganized, but for efficient harvesting of herbs, the productive herb garden needs a planned design. Walkways, compact-sized planting beds, and planned sun/shade exposure are three commonalities in herb garden designs.

The layout of your herb garden or multiple beds in your garden should take into account your need to harvest the herbs. Walkways or pathways between beds or within a larger garden plot will allow you to reach each herb. Paths can be grass, steppable groundcover plants, stone, gravel, wood-any flat surface wide enough to allow you to avoid damaging one plant to reach another.

Small planting beds make harvesting easier. Shapes such as circles, small squares and narrow rectangles are ideal designs for reaching all your herbs. Formal gardens often outline these shapes with shrubby herbs such as boxwood, lavender, marigold, or thyme. Productive designs allow you to reach every herb easily from your pathways.

Herb garden designs that place herbs with similar uses together make productive harvest much simpler. Designate one bed for medicinal herbs, another for culinary herbs, a third for aromatic herbs, or any division you want. Grouping or arranging herbs in pots in the same way will increase productivity in even the smallest herb garden.  Read more...

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When interior designers say the words “garden design”, they are crossing an invisible boundary – from interior to exterior. Historically, interior designers have focused exclusively on what lies within the home. But today some of London’s most prestigious interior design teams are starting to apply their wealth of knowledge and experience to garden schemes. The resulting whole-estate approach means that top interior designers can now offer homeowners full-service comprehensive expertise that covers every possible need. London is a splendid city in which to work as an interior designer who also focuses on gardens because it is so easy to find fabulous garden furniture, plantings and exterior illuminators from the many outstanding garden centres and wholesalers across the home counties.

London’s top interior designers know that garden paths should always be a key part of an overall garden scheme – and this requires cleverly thought-out lighting design! Paths must always be lit for practical reasons – safety and easy access are critical, whether from house to garden or from one part of the garden to another. But interior designers love to use their designer flair, and fortunately for our clients we can make even this type of lighting just as pretty as in other zones of the garden. Sometimes reflected light from illuminated features, such as outdoor urns or statues, may be sufficient to brighten up a pathway at nighttime, but more normally your interior designer will draw out a map of where the ground changes levels (safety first!). Extra illumination may be necessary here, particularly for when elderly relatives come to visit. Some London Interior Designers love to recommend pretty little indicator lights that incorporate LEDs (light-emitting diodes), which are perfect when used to show the route of a path on a dark night or when installed underneath a balustrade.  Read more...

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