Are you looking for a fun and easy way to make your garden stand out? With just a few hours on the weekend, you can transform your garden using one of these quick and simple project ideas. Here are just a few projects that can make your garden sparkle.

Create a Charming Half-Barrel Fountain

This is a quick and simple garden project that can provide years of texture and soothing water sounds to your garden. Visit your local nursery to get the right parts for this project. You will need a half-barrel planter, a fitted plastic liner for the barrel, a re-circulating pump, a decorative water pump and the appropriate tubing. Part of the fun of this project is that you can individualize your half-barrel fountain to blend in with your yard environment. If you enjoy brightly colored pots and yard ornaments, you can coordinate your half-barrel so that it complements your garden environment.

Make Your Own Decorative Garden Wind Chimes with Recycled Items

There are many easy ways to put together your own decorative wind chimes using recycled items that you can find around the house. Easy recycled items include old spoons, keys and CDs that you no longer need. You can use a metal hanger and sturdy cord or wire to hang antique forks and spoons from the hanger so that you can listen to the relaxing sounds of your own handmade wind chime. You can use just about any resonant material—your imagination is your only limit. You can also use old CDs to create your own dazzling hanging display. These can pull double-duty as they are reflective and are helpful in ridding your garden of pests.

Paint a Few Pots and Watch Your Garden Sparkle

Want to add a little color to your garden? Here is a very fast and simple way to brighten up any patio or deck. Buy three planters of varying shapes and sizes and paint them with bright colors that coordinate with your home. Use stencils to create your own dazzling designs on your pots. Protect your handiwork with paint sealant. Choose flowers that coordinate well with the flowerpot. For instance, for a bright yellow pot, plant blue-blooming flowers with long stems. This will create an eye-catching display that will be sure to please.

Install Window Boxes with Bright Showy Annuals

This is a classic touch that has been overlooked in recent years. Installing window boxes below your windows adds a classic and charming touch that is not easily missed. Coordinate the window boxes to complement your homes exterior. You can choose from a variety of materials, including wood, metal and plastic. Plant showy annuals that complement the window box and your home’s exterior, providing warmth and vibrancy. This is a classic way to add color and texture to an otherwise drab exterior, and you can complete this project in one short afternoon.

Add Stepping Stones to Your Garden

What could be more charming than steppingstones that lead right up to your garden gate? This project is a fast and easy way to enhance the overall appearance of your garden. You can use natural stones that are available throughout your yard and plant them firmly in a well designed garden path, or you can purchase readymade steppingstones in a variety of designs from your local nursery or home improvement garden store.

Decorative Lighting Adds Security and Sophistication to Your Night Garden

Decorative lighting has never been as affordable as it is today. Install a row of solar lights along your garden path, and enjoy the subtle yet moving glow that it imparts across your night garden when the sun goes down.

One of the keys to keeping your garden alive and thriving is to keep the pests out of it. But that task may be easier said than done. There are of course lots of concerns about what kind of pest controlling agents to use in the garden, striking the right balance between effectiveness of the pest controlling method and the safety of the method for the garden and the people and animals around it. Then there is the cost to consider. Pest controlling methods can get to be extremely expensive if you aren’t a careful shopper. The good news, however, is that there are tools you can use to keep your garden pest free in a way that is safe and budget friendly.

Before you choose a pest control method, you should understand the difference between the different options out there. There are many pest control products on the market that do the same thing – say, repel snails – but only some are designed to protect plants. If you want to protect the plants in your garden, you will need to use some version of a pesticide. A pesticide can do things like stop weed growth, repel insects and other animals, and add hormones to your plant roots. The difference between a pesticide that keeps spiders away and another product that keeps spiders away from a house is that the pesticide has been specifically designed to work in a garden with plants – never use a non-pesticide repellant in your garden as it may kill your plants.

The problem many people have with pesticides is that they are made from chemicals. Although you may apply these chemicals strictly to your garden, it is nearly impossible to keep them there. Spray pesticides by nature disperse into the air and are carried away from your garden and after a good rain, the pesticides from your garden will run into your neighbors’ yards, or even potentially into streams and waterways. These is concern over the long term effects of this kind of pesticide run off and there is also concern about the safety of long term exposure to pesticides on humans by eating foods grown in gardens using pesticides.

While the jury is still out on whether pesticides are good or bad (most evidence points to the fact that some are safe and necessary while some are harmful and unnecessary), there are some other methods you can use for pest control if you want to play it completely safe. These methods are called organic pest control methods. These organic methods can be as simple as removing the pests yourself. Weed your garden regularly instead of treating your entire garden when one wild flower grows. Instead of laying poison to kill slugs, snails and other creepy crawlies, wait for them to come out and take them out of your garden by hand. You can also build a barrier around your garden, use raised garden beds, or use salt to kill them. Some plants naturally repel pests that eat other plants, so add some of these to your garden (your local gardening center will help you choose the best ones for your needs). You can also use topsoil and fertilizer that attracts insects that kill other insects that eat plants – let nature do the job for you and get rid of the pests that plague your plants.

If saving money is on your mind, these natural methods of pest control for your plants can be just the ticket. They cost next to nothing, and some of them are free. For your pocketbook, and for the earth, protecting your garden using organic methods can be your best bet.

Although you may be tempted to reach for that broad-spectrum insecticide in order to blow away every pest in sight, you should resist this urge. There are many easy and money saving gardening ideas that can help you control your pest population and provide general maintenance in a way that is safe and effective. Here are some easy ways to control garden pests while saving money by using regular household items and good overall common sense when providing your garden with general maintenance.

Why You Should Avoid Most Commercial Pesticides

Before you decide to start using commercial pesticides around your garden, take a moment to decide if your garden pests are hurting the plant. Why should you consider leaving a few insect populations intact? Insects and other pests are often necessary in order to create a healthy garden. Insects are often responsible for creating organic material, which means that many pests are actually helping enrich your soil matter. It is estimated that of the thousands of insect species in your area, only about three to five percent of these are actually causing the majority of the damage to your flowers, ornamentals or food crops. The crucial thing is to determine which insects are causing problems, and which are just helping to enrich your garden.

Identifying Your Pest Population

The first thing you have to do is identify your pest population. The last thing you want to do is spray away all of your beneficial insect population. This will only put your garden under more stress and possibly incite further damage. Many people who spot an insect in their garden will spray indiscriminately. In most cases, this is a mistake. Here are some tips on easy and safe ways to control specific insect populations that are making their home in your garden.

Controlling Ants – A Common Pest in Many Gardens

Here are some ideas for controlling ant populations in your garden. Vinegar has been known to keep ants away. Pour vinegar into the anthill in order to control the ant population. Another easy way to control anthills is to use boiling water to tame your ant population. There are certain plants that are also known to control ant populations, including mints, onions, Artemisia, tansy, catnip and lavender.

Beetles in Your Garden – Controlling Plant Damage

Beetles have been known to cause plant damage, and they are often known as leaf-chewing insects. There are many plants that you can use to repel beetles. Plant beans, catnip, tansy, calendula, rosemary, nasturtiums, radishes, parsley and petunias in order to keep beetle populations in check in your garden.

Caterpillars Got You Down? Easy Ways to Keep Them in Check

Caterpillars have been known to cause damage, especially larger caterpillars. If you love butterflies, you may not want to get rid of all caterpillars. However, if you find that they have caused significant damage to your plants, here are some ways to keep caterpillars in check. There are certain plants that are known to repel caterpillars, including mints, Artemisia, marigold, basil, calendula, bay leaves, borage, thyme, nasturtiums, onions, tansy, pennyroyal, sage and rosemary.

When Birds Become Pests

Most gardeners enjoy a healthy bird population in their yard, but there are instances when birds can become pests. Many birds are known to pick fruit trees clean. Here are some tips to keep birds from ruining your fruit harvest. Use reflective material like tinfoil or cassette tape across treetops and plants. Hang fake fruit or Christmas tree ornaments on your fruit trees to train birds that pecking is futile. Finally, there are several commercial nets available at nurseries that are designed specifically to keep birds off fruit.