Fairly easy to construct and even easier to maintain, raised garden beds are a great way to raise plants and vegetables in the comfort and convenience of your backyard.
In a recent episode of the Exmark Original Series, “Done-in-A-Weekend-Extreme,” landscape designer and show host, Doug Scott, spoke to organic gardener Joe Lamp’l, of “Growing a Greener World,” about the ins and outs of raised garden beds.
Here are some of the top insights and tips Lamp’l shared.
• Why use raised garden beds?
A raised garden bed can help facilitate the ideal growing environment, as most people don’t have that perfect soil naturally in their yard. Their accessibility makes them easier to work in and maintain.
In the past year, there seems to have been an unprecedented interest in learning how to grow food due to experiencing the pandemic.
Many who had never tried to grow fruits or vegetables have become interested in experimenting with this type of gardening and may have met some challenges. Here are some fact sheets and tips to help you succeed with this fun and rewarding hobby.
Timing of vegetable planting is key, especially with Oklahoma weather. The planting season for many cool-season spring vegetables (which can handle freezes) like spinach, carrots, lettuce, peas, onions and broccoli can begin right now. Note that you can plant these again in late summer, as well, to have a fall garden.
While the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine has left a lot of question marks about the future of the U.S. economy at-large, analysts expect the housing market to remain strong and stable in the coming year.
“Despite the uncertainties of the pandemic, the housing market performed well in the second half of 2020,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Low mortgage rates and the ability to work remotely continued to propel demand for housing, which is reflected in home sales reaching levels not seen in 15 years.”
Whether you’re a potential homebuyer, a current homeowner or considering selling, here are some of the biggest takeaways of Freddie Mac’s Quarterly Forecast:
• Interest rates are likely
Let’s give it up for our houses.
Over the past year, they have really been there for us. Like a good partner, they’ve provided solid support when we needed it, stood by (or over) us in bad times and worse times, through thick and thicker, in sickness and in more sickness.
Now it’s time to show them a little appreciation.
Being in a relationship with your house is like any long-term relationship. After a while, you can get complacent. You let certain niceties slide. One day you’re both picking up your clothes, managing your mail stack, washing your own dishes and wearing cologne, and then human nature kicks in.
Yet as anyone in a lasting relationship knows, many small loving gestures over the long haul are
As the coronavirus pandemic spurs a migration of skilled workers out of expensive metro areas, a growing number of cities and states are recruiting new homeowners and even renters the old-fashioned way by bribing them.
Baltimore; Topeka, Kansas; and Tulsa are among the places paying bounties of up to $15,000 to lure remote workers to town. The states of Maine and Alaska also dangle incentives for new residents. The programs predate COVID-19, but they’ve gained momentum in recent months.
Video game designer Tyler Jaggers is one taker. He lived in Silicon Valley for years, and he dreamed of buying a house there. But Jaggers feared homeownership was far out of his reach in San Jose, California, where the typical home