Courtesy of Northampton Nursery & Northampton Building Solutions
September 2011
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| Call to Schedule Help with Your Irene Repairs |
First of all, we hope all of you made it through Hurricane Irene safely and without harm. At the same time, we want to make our experience and expertise available to anyone whose home, trees or landscaping sustained damage. We have the resources and network to assist you, and no repairs are too small or large. We also can work with your insurance company to help you through the process. Our thoughts are with every one of you. Sincerely, The Entire Team at Northampton Building Solutions & Northampton Nursery Call us at 215-364-7040 or e-mail at jgable@northamptonnursery.com. |
| Landscaping |
 Tips from the Pros
Fall Is the Time to Build a Beautiful Lawn When September rolls around, most people want to stop thinking about their lawn. But it's really an important time to pay attention. Now is the time you should take steps to ensure your lawn will look good through the fall - and next spring as well. September is one of the best months of the year for seeding or sodding new lawns. It's also a good time to over-seed old lawns with fresh seed to help fill in the bare spots and crowd out weeds and mosses. Often the first step for fall lawn care is to de-thatch the surface. That means using an iron rake or de-thatching tools to clean out the clippings and mulch that can build up at the base of the grass. A second important step for many lawns - especially those that get a lot of traffic - is to aerate the lawn. This involves poking holes in the surface or removing small plugs of soil to let more moisture and nutrients reach the roots. You can have success doing this by hand or with rented equipment, but you'll usually get better results by hiring a professional. When it comes to the seeding, you can fertilize and seed all in the same day (and apply lime as well, if you need to). Or you can seed and fertilize one day and lime later.Crape Myrtle  Long popular in the South, crape myrtles are getting more and more attention in this region as temperatures rise and hybrids are developed that are more resistant to cold. Crape myrtles come in a wide range of colors and sizes, making them one of the most versatile plants for beautifying a yard. Colors range from red to purple to pink to white, and with dwarf, midsize and tree varieties they can range from 2 to 20 feet in height. Crape myrtles like a sunny location and well-drained soil. Foliage of crape myrtle is dark green in summer and yellow, orange or red in the fall. Peeling bark adds interest to the winter landscape as well. The larger varieties of crape myrtle provide attractive single or multi-stemmed trees for driveway or street settings, the midsize are great for flowering borders and the dwarfs are popular for foundation plantings or shrub borders, especially mixed with evergreens. There are many cultivars of crape myrtle and of particular note are the National Arboretum hybrids, which were bred for greater winter hardiness. In this series, each type is named for a Native American tribe, such as "Chickasaw," "Natchez," "Cherokee" or "Osage." Crape myrtles were originally native to Asia, but have been in this country since the late 1700s. It's Time To...
Plant Trees and Shrubs for Spring- Fall is a good time to select and plant trees and shrubs. Fall planting encourages good root development, allowing the plants to get established before spring. If weather is dry, provide water up until the ground freezes.
- As the weather cools, perennial flowers that have outgrown their space can be dug and divided, or moved to a new area of the garden. New or replacement perennials can also be planted this month.
- Mark your perennials with permanent tags, or create a map showing their locations so you'll know where and what they are when they die back. This will help you to avoid digging up something you intended to keep later.
- After soil temperature drops below 60°F, plant spring bulbs for tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, dwarf irises and crocus.
- When selecting bulbs, pick healthy, disease-free ones and add bone meal or bulb fertilizer to the planting hole.
- Winter pansies, flowering kale, flowering cabbage, and fall mums may be planted now to brighten the garden when summer flowers fade.
- Feed evergreens and deciduous trees with a tree and shrub food. This product contains slow-release nitrogen, sulfate of potash, iron and other micro-nutrients for overall plant growth and development.
- September is also a good time to apply a grub control to your lawn. A good one is Milky Spore for long-term results.
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Masterpiece Project
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Finishing a Basement to Provide Great Living Space
 | In Rob and Lisa's finished basement, the entertainment center
provides display space for photos as well as cabinet-style storage. |
Rob and Lisa are a young couple, and like many young couples they have a growing family. And like young couples before them, they discovered that a growing family puts strains on living space. They weren't looking to move from their stone colonial, and they didn't have room to put on an addition. But they needed a solution to the space crunch. They called us and asked "What if we expanded down, instead of out." Their house had a full basement, but the space wasn't being used fully. What could we do, they asked, to provide more living space and make the most of the space they had? When we surveyed the basement, we saw lots of potential for meeting Rob and Lisa's needs. We started by creating a space that could be a combination family room and recreation center. This space - a little more than half the basement - would relieve the crowded feeling on the upper floors, give the kids a place to play and give the family as a whole a place to relax. Against one wall, we created an entertainment center, with room for the TV, shelves for displaying pictures and cabinet-style storage. At the same time, we built new closets next to the center, to keep games and toys out of sight when not in use. Moving on to the rest of the room, we sectioned off the laundry at the other end of the basement, creating a utility room that wouldn't intrude on the ambiance of the recreation area. Then we took advantage of dead space under the stairwell to provide additional storage. To tie the new living space together, we laid Berber carpeting, which provides a surface that is both durable and handsome. When Rob and Lisa saw what we had done, they couldn't believe how much bigger a finished basement made their house feel. And they couldn't hide their happiness. When they decorated the walls, they showed exactly how the new space made them feel. Over the entertainment center, they posted three words that said it all: "Live. Love. Laugh." We couldn't have said it better.
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Remodeling Trend
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Beautiful Tiles and Hardwoods Raise Interest in Hard Floors
Sometimes the "hard facts" can be beautiful. Consider tiles and hardwood floors. More and more people are looking to them to beautify their homes. Ceramic and stone tiles are being showcased in kitchens, bathrooms and even family rooms, and hardwood flooring is adding warmth and luster to floors throughout the house. Tile and wood floors have been around for centuries, of course, but more of today's homeowners are discovering how they can add interest and distinction to rooms where they are used. Why cover the floor with carpet when it can become a point of visual interest with area rugs and furnishings? Ceramic or stone tiles can dramatically set off couches, chairs and other furnishings, and hardwood floors pick up the warmth and tones of tables, cabinets and other woodwork. On top of that, tile and wood floors are easy to care for, often replacing heavy vacuuming with the sweep of a mop or broom. They make it easier to ride herd on pet hair and keep ahead of allergens like pollen, mold or dander. With benefits like these, the strength of stone and the warmth of wood are giving more homeowners an enduring satisfaction.
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Home Improvement
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September Is Mold Awareness Month, So Be Aware! Mold is pretty nasty stuff, and homeowners would do well to make sure it's not creeping into the house. To that end September has been designated Mold Awareness Month in the hope people will check for signs of mold before summer is officially over. Molds are all around us, both inside and outside the home. They reproduce by means of tiny spores that float on the air and are invisible to the naked eye. Molds can gain entrance to a house through open doorways, vents, windows, heaters or air conditioners, and they thrive on moisture. They especially like places that have been exposed to heavy moisture through leaky windows, pipes or previous floods. In nature, molds break down dead organic matter such as fallen leaves. Indoors they will gradually destroy the things they grow on, including carpets, furnishings and your home itself. Molds also have been connected to a variety of respiratory illnesses, including asthma, respiratory infections and upper respiratory problems such as coughs and wheezing. So what do you do if you discover you have mold? The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommends immediately fixing any leaky area that is the source of moisture and thoroughly cleaning with soap and water, a bleach solution of 1 cup bleach to 1 gallon of water, or a commercial cleaning product (be sure to follow all product ventilation rules). Then completely dry the affected area and take steps to maintain a humidity level in your home between 40 and 60 percent. Properly ventilate areas exposed to moisture such as the shower, laundry or cooking areas. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a good source of information on molds at its website.
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| Living Green & Well |
A Green Guide of Resources from National Geographic
National Geographic has long been a great resource for learning about nature, cultures and the world's geography. Now the 123-year-old organization has become a great resource for green living as well. On its website, National Geographic offers a constantly updated Green Guide that provides families and homeowners a wealth of information on everything from environmental news to vacation travel to buying a television to remodeling a living room in a way to "save energy, water and your health." Particularly useful (and fun) are the Green Guide's series of interactive quizzes, which teach and test knowledge on such subjects as home insulation, energy conservation, air conditioning, water conservation and home heating. Other green quizzes go through your home room by room, testing your knowledge about green living in kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms and laundries. There is even something for foodies, with quizzes on organic foods, sustainable foods, seasonal foods and green gardening.
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Check Out Our Video Series
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On our website we're now featuring our new Northampton Nursery Video
Series, in which we show how we work and share our ideas for creating
home masterpieces. Click on this link to view. |
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