Old Lawns Need Landscaping Too

People who move into new houses are able to have their front and back yards designed anyway they wish. But people with long-established yards can give their landscape a new look with some easy techniques.

It's easy to landscape your lawn when you're moving into a brand-new house and you're faced with an empty canvas on to work your magic. It's only slightly more difficult to landscape a yard that has been in existence for several years and has grown set in its ways.

Whether your yard is new or old, the key to getting everything done quickly, efficiently, and with a minimum of muss and fuss is to make a plan before hand. Know what you want to do, know what you have to do...and then do it.

Just as you would before you plan a new or major renovation of your yard, take some time to learn about its features. Do more than observe where the sun shines best and when - write it down so you can take advantage of it. Note where water collects after spring thaw or heavy rain. What is the direction of the prevailing wind? Where does your lawn slope? Where are the best views?

It's not necessary to redo the entire yard just to fix a few localized problems. If you have places where the grass has died, figure out why. Does it not get enough sun? It's difficult to grow grass underneath shade trees, for example, but it can be done. Simply water the tree extremely well so that the water goes down to the roots, so that the roots don't have to come up to the surface to compete with the grass. However long you like to mow the rest of your grass, set your mower to allow the grass underneath the trees to grow slightly longer, so it is better able to absorb the sunlight.

No problems, just bored with the old?
Again, there's no need for a major facelift. Simply add a few new features which will end up making the whole yard look new.

Re-painting or re-staining your fences are always a good idea. If you don't like the look of a fence you can always put a line of shrubberies against the public sidewalk and let their beauty add to your privacy. Of course you'll have to prune them frequently to keep them looking neat.

Do you like your flower beds and vegetable garden but simply feel that there's something missing? The finishing touch can often be as simple as a piece of statuary, or other ornament. Visit your local garden store to see what types of items they offer, or search the web.

Adding statues and different fixtures is cheaper way to bring a new look to a landscape. You'll probably be able to find local businesses offering statuary, but there's no reason not to surf the web and see what else is out there. is a company that offers dragons, eagles, gargoyles and even humorous pigs as well as the more typical types of ornamentation. Hastings Architectural is one of many sites that also offer statues, and planters of all kinds.

Brighten up your lawn
The easiest way to brighten up your backyard - or your front yard, come to that, is by adding new flowers. It's not even necessary to dig up a portion of your yard and plant flower beds. Simply grow the flowers in portable pots and you can move the pots around from spot to spot as the spirit moves you, as a sort of moveable feast for the eyes.

If you do want to add flower beds, make sure you choose the right location that gets plenty of sunlight, and that the soil pH balance is adequate for your needs. Then discuss what you'd like to have with the people at your local garden store who can advise you on what flowers grow best in your area, when they bloom, and other considerations.

Enjoy It
It's hard to enjoy your yard if you can't view it comfortably except from your kitchen windows. So consider picking up some comfortable wicker furniture, or even a couple of rocking chairs, for use in your garden.

About the Author:

Andrew Caxton enjoys writing about gardening for http://www.lawn-mowers-and-garden-tractors.com . A website with tips on landscaping, amongst many related topics.

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A Taste of Hungary Beyond Goulash

The first thing that comes to most people's mind about Hungarian cuisine is goulash, a hearty soup made with paprika powder, onions, tomatoes, green pepper and usually with beef. This hearty soup became a mascot of Hungary along with the country's red spice the paprika powder. The thick soup was the number one dish of herdsmen in Hungary who made it in a cast-iron kettle (bogracs) hung above open fire, out in the fields. That's why the soup is called guly?s in Hungarian. During the years gulyas became goulash in English.

Hungary's gastronomy has much more to offer than goulash. Rich soups like J?kai bean soup, ?jh?zy Chicken broth, vegetable soups, mushroom soup and a variety of fruit soups are all part of the country's cuisine. Let me dispel a common misconception that every food in Hungary is soaked in paprika sauce and it is burning hot. We have a range of tasty dishes that are made without paprika and most housewives use sweet paprika brands for cooking.

Nevertheless, it?s true that Hungarian dishes are not for people on strict diet. In the authentic version of many recipes lard is a major ingredient. Nowadays, however housewifes and restaurant chefs prepare these dishes healthier by using modern cooking methods and substituting some ingredients for healthier ones, without compromising on the taste or the texture of the food.

Although meat dishes are predominant in our gastronomy, there are some very tasty vegetarian meals too, like lecso the Hungarian ratatouille. Though most Hungarians make it with smoked sausage or bacon, vegetartians can omit them and use only fresh tomatoes, peppers and onions. Főzel?ks, vegetables simmered in water then thickened with roux, also fit into vegetarians' diets.

A variety of pasta dishes and dumplings, both savoury and sweet, add diversity to Hungary's cuisine. T?r?s csusza (egg squares with cottage cheese, bacon cracklings and sour cream) or plum dumplings (szilv?sgomb?c) are perfect main dishes after a substantial soup.

Let's not forget about Hungarian desserts. Luscious cakes, pastries and pies tempts you to taste them at cake shops in Budapest. The most popular tortes and cakes are:

Dobos torte (chocolate cream between layers of sponge with crunchy caramel topping),

Eszterh?zy torte (walnut sponge cake with walnut cream filling and sweet icing on the top,

Rig? Jancsi (chocolate sponge cake with rich chocolate mousse filling),

R?k?czy t?r?s (cottage cheese cake).

Strudel is an all-time favourite sweet snack of locals too. It's a flaky pastry filled with a various stuffings. sweet cottage cheese and raisins, sour cherry, apple. The stuffings are variable so you can have it with cottage cheese-sour cherry, apple-ground walnuts, sour-cherry-ground poppy seed fillings, the only limit is your imagination.

Should you feel like tasting authentic Hungarian dishes, Budapest has many good resturants serving local food. If you want to make some of them at home download A Taste of Hungary ebook with almost 60 well-tried recipes and lots of colourful photos.

? Copyright http://www.budapest-tourist-guide.com All Rights Reserved

Erzsebet lives in Budapest with her husband and son. She loves the Hungarian capital and Hungary's cuisine very much. On her website she shares her insider knowledge about Budapest and Hungary. Learn more about the country's cuisine and its popular dishes at http://www.budapest-tourist-guide.com/hungarian-dishes.html

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Your Destination : Central Bucks County Pa USA

Highland Hill Farm is located 1 mile west of Doylestown in Bucks County, Pennsylvania,( at 5275 W. Swamp Rd.) whose name is not at all derived from the many deer to be found (that would be too easy), was established, wa-a-a-y back in 1681 when the king of England, Charles II, owed one of his old admirals 16,000 pounds Sterling. (That's about 4 million of our 2005 dollars.) For payment of the debt, it became the admiral's son who was given a ract (a parcel, a piece) of land in he New World, on the northern continent of the western hemisphere before it got the name America.

When William Penn saw just the eastern edge of the 40,000 square miles he had gotten he was most pleased, understandably so, with a forest that seemed to never end. Dad's woods, he thought, deciding to name the place where he would start a democratic sort of Quaker colony, Pennsylvania, Penn, -sylv (a Latin word root meaning woods), -ania (Latin suffix for land). So that's why our home sounds like Count Dracula's (Tran -sylv -ania, tran for etween, as in, between the Carpathian Mountains and the old Principality of Wallachia in what is today's Romania, there's a land which is woods. Maybe Newfoundland should have been named Newfoundania? Naah.

William Penn established just three counties at first, all in the southeastern corner of his wooded land, all with names from mother England. Philadelphia County surrounded the original village there, Chester County was to the south, and Bucks County to the north.

In England, Buckinghamshire was, and still is, a county just northwest of London that forms an irregular rectangle running from the southeast at the edge of London, northwesterly. BUCKinghamShire, was shortened to Bucks in conversation. So William Penn named his land's similarly sized, irregular rectangle county, which ran northwesterly from Philadelphia's edge, Bucks County. Of course when you come to our farm be prepared to visit our county and experience its diverse culture and history.

When you come to visit us at Highland Hill Farm an interesting place to visit is always Haycock Mountain. It is a cooled 130-million year old almost a volcano that didn't get to come out of the ground. It stayed below, but made the ground bulge upward, and the hot, liquid magma cooled to form coarse-grained diabase rock. Ayres' Rock in Australia and Wyoming's Devil's Tower are world-famous examples of what is called a laccolith. Milk is lacco in Latin and lith means stone. Haycock Mountain is a laccolith, Buck's County's highest point at 959 feet above sea level.

Haycock Township surrounds the mountain. Haycock Elementary School is having their annual band concert at the nearby high school in the town of McLean on Tuesday, December 20, this year. You don't think that Bucks County has a town named McLean? You're absolutely right! Although there's the Haycock Elementary School we know on Old Bethlehem Road (Route 212), there's another one at the intersection of Haycock Road (Route 703) and Westmoreland Street, in McLean, Virginia just a few miles across the Potomac River west of Washington, D.C. Then, there's Haycock Mountain, in the southwestern part of the state of Utah, not to be confused with Haystack Mountain, Utah. Haycock Mountain, Alaska deserves mention, as well as Haycock Mound in Kansas. What's in a name?, Shakespeare observed over 400 years ago.

So you get the point; haycock is a common word, but just what is a haycock? Before the days of baling machines, cut grasses for haying were spread out in the sun to dry (gotta make hay while the sun shines) and then collected to be taken to where it would be stored. That dome-shaped mound, that pile, that heap, that stack of hay, will have a rounded top exactly like our Haycock Mountain in Bucks County.

If there's no barn with a mow (pronounce it like Chairman Mao) to store the hay out of the rain and snow, an extra large haycock can be piled up and this hayrick will have a protective outer layer of hay that will be used for bedding the farm animals, or for composting, etc. If a roof set on poles can be created to cover the hayrick, much less of the hay will have to get wet and subsequently rot... So there's a Hayrick Mountain in Texas and another Hayrick Mountain in Oregon. What's in a name? Try, Highland Hill Farm? And guess what we Raise? Highland Cattle and Nursery stock. Our most popular tree is the Green Giant arborvitae. Here is why:

The hardiness zone the Green Giant Arborvita tolerates is from zone 5 to zone 8. That's where extreme cold temperatures get down to a temperate level of about 15 or 20 degrees in the winter (Zone 8), but also as low as a frigid level of 15 or 20 degrees BELOW zero (zone 5). Green giants are evergreens, being cedars. Their rapid growth rates can in ideal conditions reach 3 feet per year. Site requirements for the Green Giant Arborvita are sun to partial shade, moist well drained soil preferred (but still does well in clay), and protection from wind, at lest when young.

The Green Giant is a beautiful tree. It has an aesthetically fine form. It's conical, being narrow to broadly pyramidal, reaching from 50 feet to 80 feet in height in southeastyern Pennsylvania. The width at the base of the cone is usually about 15 feet to 20 feet. The leaves are rich green making graceful foliage.

Green Giants make a superb privacy screen and living fences. They keep their foliage color year 'round, great for brightening bleak gray winter days with snow on the ground. The cinnamon bright red bark when young turn rich russet brown with time crating a strong contrast with the needle leaves.

Green Giants' flowers, their fruit are pretty little light brown half-inch female cones. (Just so you know, Green giants are females, so its okay to call the cones pretty.) The Green Giant is also a wonderful shade tree, casting a dark, dense shade. The wood is strong too, once the tree is beyond its youth.

This is an arborvita that should outlive even your grandchildren. There are Green Giants out west documented to be over 300 years old. Just don't plant these too close to the ocean, or roads in areas where there's a lot of salt used for snow removal. If you get over 100 inches of snowfall and more per year, no roadside Arborvita planting where salt is used, PLEASE. The greatest soldier of ancient Greece in the Trojan war had his one little weak spot, what proved to be a fatal flaw, and the Achilles Heel for Green Giant Arborvitas is hypersensitivity to salt. If you plants this Arborvitas just keep away from the splash of road salt and it will make a great living fence.

Trades Wanted: By the Farm Trader Of Bucks County

Our nurseries, farms, and ranches are always in need of all sorts of used items. We are always looking to trade for items that we might be able to use in our operations. We believe that the best way for us to obtain needed supplies is to have a hardware store approach to inventory for our operations. We want to have all sorts of materials on hand and at many of our locations to supply a lower cost source of materials for the operations. This means we buy in bulk, and accept used or items that need repairs. We have the ability to fabricate some of our own equipment so that means we will collect salvaged iron, metal pipe, and construction materials. We build our own additions and do our own renovations to our properties so used constructions materials are wanted. I am color blind so colors don't matter. Roofing shingles need not match, only protect.

We are always looking for used power equipment and tools. It is easier to have tools on site than to carry needed tools to some of our remote operations. Thus we want all types of machinery. We can modify and repair items and thus condition of the item may not be suitable for your needs but great for ours.

Do you have rolls or partial rolls of barbed wire or woven wire? Fence supplies, electric chargers, fencing tools, gate, posts.... We can trade. See http://www.seedlingsrus.com/TradesWanted.html

We are also interest in collecting rocks and boulders that we can sell at our nurseries. Wall stone and old building foundations are great sources of rock and stone. Why throw it out we may be able to recycle it? You may also have left over pavers and flagstone. We again are interested in them.

We have a store in Milan Pa that sells used items from furniture to farm equipment. There is virtually no item that is reusable that we can't sell or recycle for you. See http://www.seedlingsrus.com/MilanHirst.html

We are not a one way street. We have thousands of plants from seedlings and liners to 20' trees. We grow trees, plants, and shrubs in Fountainville and Milan Pa. See our web site for details on plants that we carry. http://www.seedlingsrus.com

Do you like to hunt? We have lots of recreational sites on our farms and ranches. See http://www.seedlingsrus.com/recreationalops2.html for information on hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, arrowhead hunting, bird watching, bone hunting and meteorite hunting on our ranches and farms. Maybe you could just help us by transporting items from one farm and ranch to another.

So when are you coming to visit Bucks County?

http://www.zone5trees.com , http://www.highlandhillfarm and http://www.seedlingsrus.com and http://www.greengiantarbs.com

About the Author

James Ryan has a large nursery in Bucks County Pa near Doylestown. He has thousands of Green Giants and writes about there uses. His web sites include http://www.seedlingsrus.com and http://www.digatree.com/Living Fences

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