EVERYTHING NEEDED FOR GARDEN DECORGarden decor provides you with the opportunity to select a subject of interest by clicking any of the five subjects indicated below.
Now lets turn to garden decor you might want to concentrate on the styles of things that could be placed in your landscape. It is important to remember that placement of the essential gazebo sheds, walkways,large flower boxes or ground decks should be in your original graphic drawing to enable you to position with ease without disturbing lawn or flower beds to install these additions.
SLOPES AND WALKWAYS MAY BECOME A PART OF GARDEN DECOR
This type of garden decor will require you to make level planting areas either for the grass or flower planting that you choose to do. The grass planting as depicted in the above picture will be easier to maintain with the use of a weed wacker. I would not attempt to drag any kind of mower up the slope. The flower boxes on either side will of course have a more stunning impact but the maintenance will also increase three fold. It all depends on the look you desire to achieve in the garden. WALKWAYS AND PATHS ADD A HIGH DEGREE OF GARDEN DECOR The addition of walkways or paths,depending on your layout add both elegance and accessibility to your garden decor. Both paths and walkways make for an attractive feature in your garden as well as an easy method to maintain your plants,shrubs or flowers along the path way. You will have to find the material that best suits your surroundings,looks good,functional,and fits your budget. You have many options to choose from here,I have used both decorative white stone,chipped red brick,and treated wood in building the paths in my garden decor. The secret here is to make sure you utilize landscaping cloth under the stone,gravel,brick or treated wood walkway to keep the nasty weeds away. It will not eliminate all weeds but it will certainly assist in lower maintenance. A walk to lets say your screened in porch or gazebo should have a path four feet wide to enable two people walking side by side. An utility path just for maintenance can be left at a two foot width.Whatever you choose try to keep it simple in both construction and maintenance.
DECKS ARE AN IMPORTANT SEGMENT OF GARDEN DECOR
The debate rages over the type of deck that should be constructed a composite deck or one made solely of treated wood or possibly redwood. The deck pictured here is my composite deck after 3 plus years with the diamond design in the middle. The manufactures of this product did indeed stop using the words "maintenance free" it is now referred to as low maintenance. I personally have done nothing to this composite deck as of yet and yes there are some mold spots developing on the stairs and certain areas of the deck floor. My deck has been through three winters of freezing and thawing and intense sunshine without fading to any extent. It is,of course,well known that a wood deck can be refinished every few years but you cannot "refinish" a composite deck. I think it lies in the definition of the term"refinish".You cannot stain a composite deck nor would you dare sand or use a very high pressure washer to clean the deck. Sign up for our gardeners news letter just click here 
I am,however,about to try a fairly new product to see if the mold stains I have can be removed. I will report back to you when I have tested this product. I am also going to test a clear water sealer on a none visible section of the deck to determine if this product can be used on a composite deck. I like my deck and the contrasting colors that we designed it with make it look more exciting then using just one color.
Discover Over 65 Beautiful Landscaping Ideas & Tips To Increase The Value Of Your Home Up To 20%. Get Started This Weekend! Click Here! WE HAVE HAD SUCCESS WITH THE PRODUCT PICTURED BELOW DATELINE:09/22/2007 THIS APPEARED IN THE JUNE ISSUE OF GARDENERS MONTHLY Those three things you see in the picture are all you need to clean the deck. Ours is a big deck and it is elevated to the second floor with twelve steps to the deck. Yes you heard me right twelve steps and the deck itself is approximately 12x12. I decided to leave town and let my wife do this my chores stop at gardening. Actually the way she did it was not really time consuming it took about two hours. This PSC deck composite stain remover comes with so many cautionary notes and instructions it actually took longer to read all this then it did to do the deck. All kidding aside,you should read the directions and as a minimum rubber gloves should be worn and any flowers planted on the sides of your deck should be covered with plastic during application. This PSC,which stands for Problem Solving Corporation,niffy name don't you think,is mixed 50/50 with normal everyday bleach,or at least that is how we mixed it,I mean my wife mix it. I watched the procedure because somebody had to take the notes for this newsletter. The exact procedure used by my wife included the rubber gloves,long sleeve shirt,long pants with plastic wrapped around the knees,large cloth,scrub brush,and pan with the the deck cleaner liquid. She started at the outside of the deck and worked towards the patio doors. I do not feel this has any significance but she did mention later that starting from the inside and working out may have been better. The liquid mix was applied at 8 square feet at a time with the cloth. The solution is then left to dry for 10 minutes while another section is being applied. Then returning to the first section and scrubbing it good with the brush to remove the stains and then doing the same to the second section and then watering it down with a hose. This procedure was repeated until the whole deck was completed. We could have used a pressure washer but were afraid of the PSI count. Although,I read later, than as long as the PSI was no greater than 1500 a pressure washer could be used. This was all done,by the way,in bright full sun and made no difference in the results and did assist in the drying It was UNBELIEVABLE as the little dots of stain totally disappeared!I do have to mention we lost a little color in what the deck people refer to as a burgundy but not in the saddle or gray. We have mixed colors on the deck to add contrast. You can see a small picture of the deck on the web site. We now decided to try a water seal on the deck. This came about from reading articles about how a composite deck absorbs water and dirt into the surface of the material causing what either looks like a low grade moss or mold. We tested Thompson's water seal on a very small portion of the deck with no adverse reaction. We tested it with a water application and this testing section beaded up. The deck never had standing water it always soaked into the surface of the composite material.The water seal was then applied to the entire deck. The unfortunate thing about the application of the water sealing occurred 48 hours later. We did the water test and some of the deck beaded up and some did not. The material was so dry that it required an entire second coat of water sealer. I moaned and groaned but my wife did a good job of applying the second coat.I was still occupied with taking my notes. I also forgot to mention in order to successfully do this job you need a wife or a girl friend. I also might mention here that the color on the burgundy boards did return somewhat after applying the water seal. The actual fade was not that sigficant in the first place. The deck cleaning material came from the web site www.psc-solutions.com the cost was $14.14 plus freight and one gallon covers 300 square feet I did find out later that Thompson has a cleaner available but I had already purchased the PSC. Triple your savings! BUY NEW BOOKS at 50-90% off! Shop at BookCloseOuts.com
HOW WE BUILT THIS DECK AND MAINTAINED SUPPORT
If you choose to build or have built a composite deck and have an existing deck that is close to or similar in size to the deck you are about to build,then reuse the joists. We had a 12 x12 foot deck and just added 8 more joists to make it 20 feet. It is important that you use treated wood for this frame either from new or a reusable deck frame because composite wood is not structurally sound enough to hold the weight. As you can see from the left picture above we used treated wood as a face plate to tie it altogether. The railings are another small problem however the composite vertical railings are strong enough if you use two composite chair rails going across the deck and postioning every third vertical railing to the face of the deck. We also put in several treated posts to hold the lights and this added stability to the whole railing system. You can see this in the center picture showing the chair rail and the vertical posts. One thing I cannot emphasize enough is that the large 4x4 composite posts,that the chair rail is attached to,must be notched as shown in the right picture. The posts are not sturdy enough to just screw them flush into the deck. They are also anchored with 6 inch bolts going through the face plate.
The other point I might make here about the mold. If you donot build your deck in complete shade,I think the mold problem will be a lot less. Ours is all in sunshine from 11am in the morning until sunset. You can buy awings or umbrellas for the necessary shade. This deck adds a lot to my garden decor. You can find lots of things at this website: Everything for the gardener! - resources,information directories,articles,video and much much more
LET THERE BE LIGHT IN YOUR GARDEN DECOR
The garden is normally planned for day time viewing. The addition of lights to certain parts of your landscape adds a new dimension to your garden decor. With advent of low voltage solar lighting,it has made it much easier for the average home owner to place his or her own lighting in the landscaping where a dramatic effect can be achieved.
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You can see the sort of interesting treatment of lighting in this photo. Again go to the old drawing board and illustrate the best features of your landscape. It may might be that you want to light a statue,an unusal tree, gazebo, or plantings. I would position myself in the landscape where maybe you entertain a lot or maybe its what you see from a deck or enclosed porch. The decision is yours on how effectively to light the chosen areas to best suit your garden decor.
There are various angles in placement of the lights. The lighting that shines up is of course the most used lighting techinque for garden decor. However you can try using several lights in a cross lighting position to provide a different perspective depending how the area is viewed. A light installed in a tree provides interesting shadows on plants and other landscaping features in your garden. You can silhouette plants or fences by the use of a light behind the subject. You can use it along your walkways that you have created to enhance your garden decor. We have a source here in our garden links that will assist you finding the right garden light for your garden landscape. There is a large selection of indoor and outdoor lights at this web site:
OTHER GARDEN DECOR SUCH AS FENCING,ENCLOSED PORCHES,GAZEBOS AND ARBORS
ENCLOSED PORCH
The enclosed or screened porch is a great asset in garden decor. We constructed ours underneath the composite deck with an unique gutter system pictured above. This system prevents 100% of the rain water from coming into the enclosed porch area with a little caulking and proper placement. Ours was a little different in that we were as noted above using an existing frame and adding posts to accommodate the screening. This gutter system was truly designed for straight runs into a gutter suspended across the front of the porch but because of our design we ended up notching the system and exposing more areas to leaks. A great deal more caulking had to be done than if the structure had been new. This system is available at Lowe's. We have not had any serious leaks in 3 plus years. The other type of enclosed porch has a roof of its own and is usually an extension of the house and sometimes are referred to as sun rooms if the entire room is enclosed with glass. In any case the enclosed porch should have a good view of the landscape to add to your garden decor.
Gazebos can be constructed of any kind of wood material however it is best to use either treated wood,cedar,or redwood. You can have someone design a gazebo for you or better still find a plan on the Internet that would be workable for you. A google search turns up lots of information about downloading actual plans. I would not download a plan without the bill of materials which describes in some detail the quantity of wood and sizes you will need and the necessary tools and hardware to assemble your gazebo. If construction is not your thing give the plans and the bill of materials to a good local carpenter and have him build it for you. Another good idea is take your bill of materials to a hardware store and purchase the necessary materials yourself and then all you will have to pay is the labor to have it assembled.
A fence has many uses in a garden decor setting. They can be decorative,for privacy,climbing plants and safety. I should build a fence on the West side of my garden to protect it from the strong wind that comes from that direction. My fence at present is a break between the larger garden area and the lawn behind the fence that leads to the woods. It also acts as a climber for some roses and clematis growing in front of the fence. I have attached metal trellis to the backside of my plastic white vinyl fence to enable the climbing roses and the clematis to spread their wings so to speak. I will never again have a wood fence or an old fashion wood railing fence. These are way too much maintenance. Arbors can add a dramatic entrance to any part of your garden decor or simply be there to support weeping wisteria or other climbing plants. It makes the best impression when it is built in some length as an entrance to some special part of your landscape. It can also be used as a partial sun shield on your deck or open patio. The arbor can be built with pressure treated lumber and either left natural or paint it to match some part of your garden decor. We put a small arbor at the top of our deck made out of left over composite rails from the deck and some treated wood posts.
A , shed is an interesting addition to your landscape and one that is way practical. We had ours painted to match as close as possible the siding on the house. You can do so much with these little buildings to integrate them into your garden decor. We purchased ours completely assembled and the shed was placed exactly where we wanted at the rear of the garden but can be seen from the ground level or second story deck. It looks attractive in the garden and your tools and lawn mowing equipment are right at your finger tips without cluttering up your garage.
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Another thing of note,we inserted wood between the joists,from the old deck, to make a 12" on center brace for the floor instead of 16". This will be solved if you start with all new wood. In this case it was a good way to use up all the pieces of the old deck without having to trash them. We also did v shaped braces to add additional support. If you see any blotches in these pictures it is not from mold but either from my lousy stain job of the treated wood or rain drops as it was raining slightly when I took these pictures. I like this deck and if you take the time and plan it all out you can have a sturdy composite deck despite the mold which I am about to attack.
Of course there are many other things that can be added to enchance your garden decor like patio furniture,a pool,a waterfall and fake rocks. All of that discussion will be addressed in our garden club section of this site with monthly coverage of some aspect of gardening.
