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Archive for June, 2009

Gardening and caring for the different rose types

WATERING

Roses are deep rooted and once they are well established are more capable than most plants of surviving mild drought spells. The first spring and summer directly after planting your rose is very important. During this period if the soil around your rose seems to be drying out give your roses a good soaking. Each rose could get about 2 gallons of water. In following years you will only need to water them if drought seems iminent.

FEEDING YOUR ROSES

As with all plants that provide us with beautiful blooms they need plenty of the correct nutrients. Give roses a good helping of blood, bone and fishmeal in early April, about two handfuls to each rose. In June a handful of specially prepared rose fertilizer will give your roses a huge lift. The magnesium and potash gives the rose a great kick. Just work the fertilizer in gently around the soil at the base of the plant.

MULCHING YOUR ROSES.

Mulching is a very simple task with great benefits. Mulching retains moisture, smothers weeds and generally boosts the health of your roses. Well rotted manure is best but garden compost or bark mulch can also be used.

DEADHEADING YOUR ROSES.

Deadheading spent blooms not only tidys up the rose but actually saves the plants energy and thereby encourages more bloom flushes. A light pruning of hybrid teas will encourage a second flush.

WATCH OUT FOR ROSE SUCKERS.

Shoots that emerge from rootstocks are known as suckers. These will be different in coloring and often by the amount of leaves, than what grows from the stems over ground. Gently scrape away the soil until you can see where the sucker is growing from the rootstock, tear the sucker away cleanly.

CONTROL OF WEEDS.

Mulching is the most effective method of controlling weeds and also the less back breaking.

Hoeing is not as effective and you must take care not to damage the stems.

Sowing other plants underneath the rose is also an option. The least favored option is the application of a rose-bed weedkiller. This will eventually damage the soil and thus your rose.

ROSE DISEASES AND PESTS.

This is an area that turns people off growing roses and really it shouldn’t. Roses have diseases and pests particular to them and as such regular treatment is very effective. The main problems are greenfly, mildew and blackspot.

There are plenty of products that treat these main three problems in one treatment. Performing a regular maintenance schedule starting in April will leave you with very few problems. Do make sure to follow exactly the manufacturers recommendations.

Your roses will respond brilliantly to a little regular maintenance and once you have started your routine there will be very little work attached. Issues will only arise once you neglect your routine and this is what often deters people from growing roses.

Along with the vitality and liveliness children bring in to a home, they also bring great energy. Often times, children’s energy can lead to broken vases, stained carpeting and scratched flooring. Parents often times feel that they must sacrifice their designer taste and style to transform their home into a ‘jungle gym’ full of child proof appliances and cheap furnishings.

Decorating your home to accommodate children doesn’t have to mean giving up rich fabrics and decorator hues for a collection of cartoon characters and primary colors. There are plenty of functional home décor materials to fit your taste and the wear and tear of a busy family lifestyle.

Creating a Kid Friendly Color Palette

Before you start decorating your kitchen or family room, consider how often you and your children use that particular space. If the room is a high traffic area, consider using neutral, organic colors like taupe, light browns and greens. These neutral colors camouflage dirt and the everyday deterioration of your active lifestyle. If these organic hues seem dull, incorporate bright shades by adding colorful home accessories like throw pillows and area rugs. A few accent colors are quick, simple, low maintenance ways to liven up even the dullest room.

If the room you are decorating is considered an ‘adult only’ space, splurge and experiment with rich decorator hues and color palettes. Creating an ‘adult only’ room allows you to have at least one area that you can decorate exactly how you want, without the possibility of your hard work being at risk.

To learn more about the latest family friendly home improvement materials that will complement all color palettes, visit www.westcoastflooring.com.

Installing Long-Lasting Floors

When selecting carpet flooring for your home, opt for darker colors. Dark carpeting disguises grape juice and mud stains better than light carpeting. Save the lighter colors for adult zones like the bedroom or home office.

If you’re in the market for hardwood flooring, select something more durable that can withstand roller skates and soccer cleats. Bamboo flooring has proven to be a more durable alternative than oak or laminate flooring. Bamboo also accepts a large variety of stains, making it a versatile flooring option that can be blended to match almost any interior color palette. All wood flooring will eventually scratch, but bamboo can easily be refinished, unlike laminate flooring.

Extend the life of your carpets and hardwood flooring by investing in wool area rugs that have been treated to resist stains. Hooked wool rugs are great for high traffic areas where kids walk, play and eat because they offer easy spot clean up and very little maintenance. You can find durable rugs in all sorts of stylish patterns and colors and they can be moved around to designate areas. Toss one in the kids’ play room, or underneath the coffee table to preserve your home floors.

Visit www.westcoastflooring.com to find more durable flooring options for your home.

Incorporating Durable Fabrics

Though dining room chairs upholstered in silk may look great now, they will not look as attractive after a few meals with the kids. Instead of purchasing couches and chairs upholstered in high maintenance materials, like silk, select durable fabrics such as cotton and ultra-suede that can withstand daily activity. Consider the fancier fabrics, such as chenille and crinkled velvet, for accent pillows and throws. Velvet and chenille have a more formal feel and are more durable than silk.

Couples don’t have to surrender their style when they have children. There are plenty of attractive and substantial home décor solutions for the busy family lifestyle. Transforming your home into something more stylish and family friendly is simple when you invest in the right home décor materials.

This article is provided by West Coast Flooring Center , one of the largest flooring stores in Southern California , offering flooring services with a wide variety of quality flooring options and other home improvement services.

West Coast Flooring is currently offering weekly, limited-time specials to represent a different home improvement product or service that would work best in the kitchen, family room, bathroom and foyer. Find the latest West Coast Flooring offers for your spring home improvement projects today.

If you’ve ever spent time rearranging furniture in a room, browsing antique shops and second-hand stores in search of hip vintage furniture, or obsessing over accent walls and window treatments, you might want to consider joining the ranks of interior designers. By marrying your creativity with the right education, you can earn a comfortable living in a flexible career field.



As a career, interior design engages creative service professionals to plan and design spaces in public buildings and private homes. Interior designers work with clients and other design professionals (including architects) to create safe, functional, and attractive rooms. The job requires a keen sense for creative visualization, as well as solid aesthetic technique, customer service, and professional communication skills, which interior designers use to present design plans to clients. For any given job, interior designers make recommendations for materials to be used and must explain how different textures, colors, and lighting schemes combine and interact to create a pleasing design. Finally, interior designers must also understand technical requirements of a given space, including health and safety regulations, and building codes.



Interior Design Careers: A Flexible Living

Besides the ability to put your design skills to work, there are other benefits to working in interior design. One major benefit to an interior design career is flexibility. If you aspire to a stable, full-time position, several top-paying industries employ interior designers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics specialized design services employed 20,820 interior designers as of May 2007. Other top industries employing interior designers included architectural, engineering, and related services (with 9,680 interior design jobs in May 2007), and furniture retailers (with 5,770 jobs).

Depending on your preparedness to face the competition and your desire for high earnings, you may find some industries more attractive than others. Specialized design and architecture firms tend to offer larger and more stable salaries. In May 2007, mean annual wages for interior designers in specialized design services stood at $51,520. Designers working for architectural, engineering, and related services earned $52,000 on average.

If you’re looking for a more flexible pay scale and schedule, you can ply your trade as a self-employed interior designer. In 2006–the last year the Bureau of Labor Statistics accounted for self-employed interior designers–26 percent of interior designers were self-employed.

College Education for Interior Design Careers

As you might expect, finding a niche for yourself in any interior design industry requires a lot of hard work. Equally important, however, is postsecondary education. To gain entry-level interior designer positons, experts recommend postsecondary education–especially bachelor’s degrees. Although many colleges and universities offer two-year certificate and associate’s degree programs, bachelor’s degrees are generally considered more appropriate if you want to move from a college degree into internships or formal apprenticeship programs. Between formal college training and an apprenticeship program, you can prepare yourself to gain state licensure, a requirement for interior designers practicing in twenty-three states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

With so many different venues for new designers to ply their work, ample compensation for dynamic, creative work, and as many as 250 postsecondary institutions offering degrees in interior design, you have every reason to make space for your talent. Check out interior design career training today.