Planting Spring Bulbs

If you’ve gone into your local gardening supply store, you’ve probably seen large racks of bulbs for sale. The bulbs have big flowers and fun names like Dahlias and Gladiolas.

These are the bulbs you plant now that bloom in the summer and create a gorgeous burst of color. There are many varieties of flowering plants, but few offer all the advantages of bulb plants. For starters, bulbs are generally cheap to buy, and are available from local shops or on the internet.


Bulbs are also beautiful putting out the most beloved flowers in the garden. Irises, hyacinths, daffodils and tulips are also bulb plants. Most of these should have been planted in the late fall or early Winter. But don’t let that stop you. If you can find the bulbs, plant them and they will certainly bloom the next year. Sometimes, they even reward you by blooming the first year.
Even though bulbs are among the hardiest of all plants, it is important to exercise caution when planting them, and to buy only the best and most healthy bulbs. By choosing the healthiest bulbs, it will be easy to create a beautiful and healthy garden year after year.

When shopping for bulbs, look for the firmest, plumpest bulbs you can find. A good, high quality bulb will seem surprisingly heavy for its size. Avoid bulbs that are too soft as it’s often a sign of bulb rot. In addition, bulbs that are very light in weight, or that appear shriveled or cracked, should be rejected. These bulbs may have lost too much of their moisture to bloom in the garden.
The best blooms are generally provided by the largest bulbs. For instance, the largest iris bulbs will generally provide the biggest irises, and the biggest tulip bulbs will produce the largest tulips. Since bulbs bloom every year, a most cost effective approach for the patient gardener is to buy small bulbs and allow them to grow over time. Or you can buy some large and some small and build up your garden with a variety of color and flowers that are timed with the season. For example, you could have the crocuses and paperwhites flower in early spring giving way to tulips and then irises and finally the dahlias.

Just be certain to give each bulb plenty of space to grow, and plant them in well draining soil. If water hangs out, you’ll unfortunately rot out your bulb.
And take care of your bulbs annually. A great gift could be some bulbs and directions on how to grow them.

Home Improvement With A Pocketful Of Tips

It’s a new year, and maybe it’s time for some “newness” in your home. If you have been planning for a while that you would like to make some updates to your home, but have put it off because you just don’t know where to start, let us help you determine what to do, how to do it, and how to get the best deal possible.

 

 Today, we’ll do some quick tips.

To keep your toilets clean, pour bleach inside the bowl. Close the lid and let it sit for 15-20 minutes. Bleaching your toilets will smell bad for a while, but it will decrease your chance of getting sick and spreading germs as well as making your toilet nice and shiny.

When looking to improve your home, consider going with Compact Fluorescent Lights. CFLs do not use as much energy as a normal light, and they last a lot longer. When you switch your lights to Compact Fluorescent Lights, you will save money on your energy bills. CFLs do contain mercury, so you will need to find out where to properly dispose of them. If you don’t like the idea of the mercury, spend a little bit more on LED bulbs. They last just as long and you don’t have to worry about calling a hazmat team if they break.

When you are remodeling your bathroom, make sure not to add carpeting to the floor. Not only does carpeting stain easily, but the water from the shower will give the carpet, and subsequently your whole bathroom, a musty odor. Instead, go with a tile so you can easily clean up any water that may get on the floor.

Store your paint cans upside down. A skin forms inside used cans of paint. When you open the can it’s a mess to remove. One solution is to put the used paint cans in your storage area upside down! That way when you turn the can over and open it, the skin is underneath the paint where it can’t cause a problem.

Cover your door knobs, hinges and other hardware with petroleum jelly before painting. It is an easy way to insure they don’t get covered in paint. All you have to do when you are finished painting is use a soft cotton cloth to wipe the petroleum jelly from the surfaces of the hardware.

Painting an indoor room can be done quickly and easily. If possible, try to do all your painting in daylight hours, as artificial light can cause you to miss small areas. Tackle the ceiling first painting around the edges in bands then working your way towards the center. The walls should be painted starting at the top, and working downwards in overlapping sections.

If you are having home repairs done by a contractor, always get multiple bids from several licensed contractors that are well established and highly recommended. Make sure that the bids you receive are written and contain fixed-price bids for the needed services. Ensure that the wording is detailed. You don’t want to go with the best price and find out it didn’t include something major.

Don’t keep putting off your home improvement projects because you lack the knowledge or expertise to do it all on your own. There are plenty of ways that you can make significant changes in your home, with a little bit of time, research, and practice.

What home improvement projects are on your list for this year?

Should You Rent or Buy in 2014

 

Housing prices are increasing and so are mortgage interest rates. New regulations in 2014 also increased closing costs and put limits on the amount of points you could use to pay down your interest rate. They also created stricter guidelines for application approvals.

So if you’re a first time home buyer, you may be asking yourself: should I continue to rent or should I buy in 2014?

TIG adviser Jeff Lewis was interviewed on Fox Business to answer this very question. You can see the full 6:32 minute video here. His prediction is that the housing market will get back to normal by the end of the calendar year.

In his opinion, housing prices are still affordable now compared to housing prices before the real estate bubble that inflated costs tremendously. They are not as easily affordable as they were the last two years, and as interest rates continue to increase and housing prices level up, we will achieve a normal balance by the end of the year.

We’re seeing a greater recovery in the states with the better abilities to create jobs. Housing is still in a very bad state in the Midwest and big cities like Detroit. Mr. Lewis speculated that increased home ownership may be part of the problem because it reduced mobility of people to leave the area and find a better job. The homeowners are stuck in underwater housing and no jobs.

Also, in large cities, home ownership is near impossible, and there isn’t the same stigma attached to being a life-long renter. In fact, renting is considered a bonus because when there are problems like water leaks, the owner of the building has to fix it.

Still, for many people buying a home is achieving an American Dream. The bottom line for future homeowners is to evaluate their expectation of prices and goals. If it is your goal to own a home on a nice tree-lined street and have block parties, then you should start talking with a reputable mortgage officer to find out how much you could pre-qualify for. A knowledgeable real estate agent will also be able to help you find the right home. You may want to save up longer and buy the one home you will stay in, or you may want to invest in a starter home that you can sell to get back your equity, or rent out.

For real estate investors, it’s still a great time to be buying homes that are lower than their normal value. Rental vacancy rates are still at an all time low.

Will you be buying in 2014?