Light Up Your Garden

Wood fired ovens

peter9871 — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:35:30 +0000

Following on from my post about chimineas, the next step up would be this baby: the might wood fired pizza oven.

This is a great outdoor living feature that like nothing else, will make your home the destination of all your friends, every weekend. Wood fired ovens are the dome shaped things made of brick that you might have seen becoming more popular on cooking shows lately. The idea is that you fire them up for a few hours, and the bricks soak up so much heat that you can cook in the oven even after the fire has gone out.

Of course, they can be a very ornamental way of decorating your garden too, especially if you are going for the popular tuscan inspired style.

The best thing is that you can make these yourself if you are little bit handy. There is a good article on hubpages about making a pizza oven if you want to get more of an idea of the process. Of course if you’d rather just get someone else to do the hard part, there are places to buy them preassembled. Forno bravo has a good range as well as good advice on how to use your wood fired oven once it arrives. I also got all the advice about making one there, and I’m half way into my own version!

Chimineas

peter9871 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:17:28 +0000

Just a quick post today but I wanted to show a video to give a better idea of what I mean. Chimineas are becoming massively popular. They are basically a small, portable oven made of stoneware or metal. These are just an excellent way to light as well as heat a semi enclosed area at night. I don’t have one of these yet but I want one – we went to a friends house for dinner recently and theirs kept us all warm under the patio, even though it was a cold and rainy night. I’ve even heard that you can cook in the chimney of some models so if you are a bit of a home chef, might be even more reason to check these out!

Natural lighting

peter9871 — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:08:56 +0000

Electric lights have their place but you can’t beat the atmosphere of a natural, flickering flame in a courtyard garden. There’s quite a few ways you can get this effect. One of the most useful (and cheapest) ideas is to get those bamboo torch things. They are very cheap – I’ve seen them around $10 and are also very atmospheric. The useful thing about these is that you can get them to burn an insect repelling scented oil, so they do double duty if you have mozzies around.

Another option is to go for a traditional candle lantern. These are the cast iron and glass contraptions, stage coach style. If you get a big candle they can provide hours of light, and just a few plus the light of the full moon can be enough for a garden party. If you want something more permanent though, there’s a nifty idea here: Outdoor electric candle

I am going to have a shot at this project myself – I like the idea of a traditional appearance with a bit of modern convenience thrown in

Solar Lights

peter9871 — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 04:27:59 +0000

When I used to think of solar lights I always just thought of those little steel post lights that have a solar panel in the roof and a bulb underneath. Don’t get me wrong these are definitely great for lining driveways etc. I even have a couple in my little herb rockery and they look pretty nice. However a bit of research has revealed how many different options there are these days. You can get these little rock shaped things that are actually solar lights, so you can build them into a rock wall or garden bed and light up an area. Solar floodlights are also pretty handy – I picked up a set for about $60 and use them to light up a couple of big trees in the back yard, they look great from the patio at night!

There’s a good website here: Solar Lights if you want to see some of the different styles around. Tomorrow I am going to look at some of the other lighting options you can try for a more romantic approach.

Garden design

peter9871 — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:13:26 +0000

Hello everyone, I want to give you my thoughts about garden design! I have a largish block and find that while it needs constant attention, it is very rewarding to have an elegant garden that I can enjoy with my friends and family on those warm summer evenings which are on the way in my neck of the woods!

One thing I always strive for in my garden is to create little secluded areas that have their own personalities and atmospheres. I read and reread the secret garden as a kid, and maybe it has left an impression

One thing you can do that really helps to create this sense of mystery is to add some outdoor lights to your garden. There’s heaps of styles available at most homewares and hardware stores. Some of the options you might wanna look at are solar lights or candle lights. I will look at these in more detail in my next post!