Home and Garden

2012 is almost ending. I believed some of you are currently doing some home improvements. Some might be done with their home projects. Whether you are renovating your home, buying home furniture and fixture, making a new garage, home extension, building a patio or any other projects, everyone simply wants to make their homes more comfortable and cozy place to live in.

We are so happy that we had done a lot of home improvements for 2012 and for the past years.  This is a continuous project and we are glad that we are already starting it.

We  bought new appliances which are energy saver this year. We replaced our chest freezer with a new one. Our multi-purpose garage is 99% done. We only need a siding or better walling for it. We just installed a temporary siding to it until we will put the new one next year. It has quite a big  with an area of almost 60 sq. metres. Actually half of it is use as garage and half is use as a terrace. We put our old dining set   in there for us to sit down and relax while sipping a cup of coffee or tea.

We are also  renovating our bathroom at the moment. We dismantled the old wooden walls and replaced it with tiles. Our old bathroom actually looked like a sauna before due to its wooden walls. We also bought a new bathtub set for it and it is already installed. For now, we just need to finish the flooring. We will also replace our old sink with a new one. I can say, our bathroom is currently 85% done. I hope that we will finish it in two weeks since we are only the one doing the renovation.

Regarding our bedroom, our new bed was already delivered last week but not yet installed. Such a busy life huh!

Our next project early next year will be our kitchen and dining room. We will be replacing everything. We need a new flooring for it. A new kitchen set, display cabinets and a new dining set are also on our home furniture list.

I guess our home projects and improvements will quite take some years to materialize. We are saving money for it and from time to time, we do the renovation. At least we are doing our best to make our home a better and comfortable place to stay and it is debt-free!

They are slowly dying in our garden.  It is autumn time now in Europe and most  trees, plants  and flowers are withering especially if they are outside.  I can still see  some violas and roses flowering. In a couple of days, I know they will be gone.

I will  surely miss these flowers in our garden. See you next year again!

Viola typically have heart-shaped, scalloped leaves, though a number have palmate leaves or other shapes. The vast majority of Viola species are herbaceous, and a substantial number are acaulescent in habit – meaning they lack any noticeable stems and the foliage and flowers appear to rise from the ground; the remaining species have short stems with foliage and flowers produced in the axils of the leaves.

Roses are best known as ornamental plants grown for their flowers in the garden and sometimes indoors. They have been also used for commercial perfumery and commercial cut flower crops. Some are used as landscape plants, for hedging and for other utilitarian purposes such as game cover and slope stabilization.

I miss this walking way when I was in the United States  of America for a month. When I come back again here in Europe, I still did not had the chance to go walking this way again. Oh wait, I remember doing it one time with a friend. She called me one Sunday afternoon after my nap. I should not go with her that time but she really forced me to go walking with her. That was a wonderful Sunday afternoon.

I love the wild flowers, the grasses, hills and trees  and the green green surroundings  in our area. I am blessed to see nature like this!

Wild flowers  on our walking and biking path.

Oh how beautiful these flowers are!  These red dahlias are truly lovely.  I usually buy  different colours of these flowers every summer. It is a  bushy  and herbaceous  perennial plants. When autumn time is almost coming, I dig it again from our garden and store in a cool dry place.  It cannot withheld freezing cold temperature during winter time. When spring time comes, I usually plant it again.

For you info, Dahlia is the national flower of Mexico. I believed they had a good choice!

They are gone now in our garden. I guess they are only resting down the soil to get ready for spring next year. They had already done their part beautifying our garden during spring season. I am missing the tulips in our garden. I am not really sad because I know I will see them again next year.  I don’t have to worry too because I always take pictures of them  everytime they are coming back to our garden.

I haven’t seen the flowers of the dahlias until now in our garden. I replanted some last spring time but everytime the leaves are growing the snails are eating them. These pests are really unstoppable.

Dahlias are herbaceous perennial plants. Like sunflower, daisy and chrysanthemum, they are members of the Asteraceae or Compositae, dicotyledonous plants. I love these flowers and hope to see them this year before autumn time comes.

The Yellow Dahlias in our garden. Also known as Dahlia x hybrida. This image was taken last summer 2011.

Why does the confining upgrade grade the disorder?

I finally harvested some sweet strawberries from our garden. I don’t have a lot but at least from time to time I can get some fruits from it. The best thing is, it is free from any chemicals because I never put pesticides or insecticides on it. We don’t a lot this year since the area where I planted a lot before is already a big patio and garage now. I am hoping to plant more in the flower pots since I also hate the snails going on it on the ground. With the flower pots, I can put them on the table. Hopefully this week I can already replant some.

Germans call these flowers “Bertnelken”. There are already some colors in our garden but I still bought another three colors. I already have white, pink, fuschia, purple and some color combinations.

Dianthus Barbatus or the Sweet William flowers are herbaceous biennial or short-lived perennial plant growing to 30–75 cm tall, with flowers in a dense cluster of up to 30 at the top of the stems. I spread some seeds on our garden last year and I found out that they grow back again this year. I was so happy with it. I will see if I can get more colors the next time I go to the garden center.

The Dianthus Barbatus or the Sweet William  in our garden. They are still blooming until now.

I have different kinds of these plants in my garden before.  Since I don’t live anymore in a tropical country, I can no longer grow Dieffenbachia outside. These are houseplants but since most of our windows inside the house are already filled with plants, I can’t either have it.

Dieffenbachia is a genus of tropical plants in the Family Araceae noted for their patterned leaves. was named by Heinrich Wilhelm Schott, the director of the Botanical gardens in Vienna, to honor his head gardener Joseph Dieffenbach (1796–1863).