Month: <span>June 2017</span>

Methods To Landscape Around Your Swimming Area

If you have a great swimming area in your home and you want to add some panache to it, you will need to get into a bit of landscaping. You will need to consider many details such as the location, shape of the swimming area; the plants that you would like to grow and what look would suit your garden overall. Here are some easy methods to landscape beautifully around your personal swimming area.

Choose your plants carefully

Be it a swimming area or a hot tub; make sure that the plants that you choose will always complement this setting. Many tall plants can end up shedding leaves into the water making it necessary for you to be constantly cleaning out the tub or swimming area. You can get some glass pool fencing done for this problem. Also, the greenery that you choose to incorporate into the area needs to function well with the rest of the landscaping too. When you are choosing plants consider if they are; easy to grow and look after, if they are safe, complement your home and the rest of the garden, is suitable to the climate that you live in, fits the shape and the size of that area, does not throw off the balance and that it brings in diversity, some colour, different textures and also a great scent.

Look out for succulents

Plants that belong to the class of succulents are a popular choice for landscaping around areas with water. You can use the help of retaining walls for this purpose. These succulents can add a variety of green shades and also bring in different textures because they are usually very sculptural plants. You also need to make sure that none of them will have thorns on them. You and your loved ones, especially children will be around these plants in swimwear which exposes skin and you do not want to sustain cuts and scratches.

Choose a great ornamental grass type

Ornamental grass types are usually very easy to look after and look stunning in areas with water. This is not the everyday lawn grass that you will commonly come across. Bamboo and rush are some examples of ornamental grasses. Some very good choices to plant around your swimming area are; yellow foxtail, bamboo, giant reed, lemongrass, Japanese blood and fountain grass.

You can also grow some vines

Vines bring in some verdant greenery and character to your garden and swimming area. They climb over the walls and somehow create an intricate path for themselves over trellises. They also grow rather rapidly and can be a great way of getting some sort of privacy around the swimming area or outdoor tub. They can also form a part of your pergola. Some great choices for vines can be passion flower vines, jasmine, trumpet vines, honeysuckle and lady banks rose vines. Once you have really considered what plant life you wish to include and in what pattern, you can start creating a one-of-a-kind swimming area in your garden that will make it stand out.



Dealing With An Emergency Leak In Your Home

You may notice a small leak in your home and you may not pay too much attention to it but in truth, this can be very dangerous and in some cases, if the problem worsens and goes in to your walls and power lines, it can even cause death. It is vital that you do not ignore a leak in your pipes or a wet patch on your walls no matter how small it might seem because you cannot ever predict how bad the problem is in areas that are beyond your line of sight. As an example, you may have noticed a small wet patch on your wall and you might think nothing of it because it is a very small patch but behind the wall, where you cannot see, the leak might be a lot worse. If the water soaks in to your walls and seeps in to areas where there are wires, sockets, power lines or plug points, it might even cause a short circuit which can cause your entire home to become an electrical conductor. Go here http://barnesplumbing.com.au/blocked-drains/  for more information about blocked drains.

Call in a professional

The first thing that you will have to do is to turn off your main water lines and turn off your main electrical lines as soon as you notice a leak or a wet patch. Do not try to avoid this or assume it is unnecessary because you will never be able to predict the true extent of the damage until it has been checked by a professional. As soon as you have turned off the mains, you will want to call in a plumber to come in and check your home thoroughly for any leaks or problems that may have occurred. It is most likely to be that one of your water lines or pipes inside your wall has broken and caused a leak inside your wall. It will definitely be a problem with the plumbing and he will be able to sort it out without a doubt but in some cases, if the problem is serious or deeper inside your wall, it may require him to break your walls to find the broken pipe or leakage and you will need to bring in a builder to fix the mess once the pipe has been found and fixed.If you see water on your floor or if the pipe that has broken is an exposed one, you will want to clean up the water that has flooded your home immediately as this water can seep in to your walls and cause a shirt circuit.



Making Use Of Clean Power

When it comes to going green, the obvious thought is to make use of clean energy power but it is quite difficult to decide on what type of energy source to use. Should you make use of solar power or wind or hydropower? With quite a lot of options available, it can seem quite overwhelming for someone new and put a person off before they even begin. It is advised that before you make the move to green power, take the time to improve the energy efficiency and cut down on the use of electricity. While this has the obvious benefit of reducing the carbon output and the costs associated with your electricity bill, lowering the energy used up also makes it easier for you to produce your own electricity. 

To start off easy, call up your electricity provider and check if they offer any alternative power sources. A lot of companies in the market offer a multitude of options such as hydropower and solar power. The prices they charge vary according to the state or the country.

An article on clean power will not be complete without its most popular contributor; solar power. Solar power is divided in to two categories; active and passive. Active is where solar power is captured through solar cells and where the solar power is either used up instantly or stored for later in order to either provide heat or electricity to either support the conventional grid system or eliminate the use of the grid system. While solar panel installation Lake Macquarie used to be extremely costly, the prices have gone down to an affordable amount. Solar powered systems come in a variety of power ranges such as 3KW solar systems and more. Passive solar power is where cells and complicated systems are not used but rather takes advantage of the power of the sun in other ways. There are three such ways; one being direct light where light is collected through windows; indirect gain where the heat is stored within walls and a final called isolated gain which is usually used in something like a sun room.

You can also think about using the geo thermal energy present in the Earth. This geothermal energy comes from the hot springs and geysers present under the earth. Equipment like the ground source heat pump take advantage of the steady heat levels present in the ground to heat or cool places. They make an excellent method to heat or cool buildings and are one hundred percent renewable. The lifetime of these ground source pumps are between twenty five to fifty years meaning that long term use is a possibility with these pumps.