An unprepared vegetable garden is no match for even a slight frost…so to make next year’s work easier, your garden must be protected. That’s why now is the time to prepare your vegetable garden. Winter is coming — and, unlike in Game of Thrones, it won’t take seven years to arrive. Follow these four easy steps to protect your garden from the harsh weather conditions.

1. Clear out old plants. This will prevent growth of undesired mold or disease and take a step out of your way next year. Rotting plants can pollute the soil and ruin subsequent crops, so be sure to get up all of the roots. This debris can be used for composting.

2. Setting aside an area for composting will give you great soil come next year. Dig trenches in your garden and fill them with organic debris. The heat from the trenches will facilitate the decomposition process, helping create extremely fertile soil.

3. If you have immature vegetables that might die during the winter, you can preserve them for the next season by digging them up (get up all of the roots without harming them) and burying them headfirst with the roots sticking out of the ground. As strange as it may sound, the relative warmth of the soil will keep the vegetable from dying in the frost.

4. Cover the soil with a tarp to protect it from direct exposure to frost. Frost can damage the soil, making it less suitable for rearing plants in subsequent years.

Whenever dealing with gardens, the best possible option is to seek the assistance of a professional landscaper. With TalkLocal’s assistance, you can find one with the right experience and schedule you need – for free. Don’t wait for the winter to draw any closer; head over to TalkLocal and let us show you how easy it is to find a local landscaper before Jack Frost comes knocking on your door.

Fragrant greens, reds, blues, glistening sunlight on top of plump fruits and vegetables an arm’s reach away. Somewhere in this paradise, you know that Adam and Eve are still running around naked as jaybirds, laughing at talking snakes and perfectly contented by their naivety plus all of the delicious totally legal fruit they are free to consume. Scarcity? Hunger? Currency? No such thing. Obviously food just grows out of the ground like nature’s own Willy Wonka factory. Wait… can’t relate to this heaven on Earth? Then you need a DIY home hydroponics system.

Okay, hydroponics may not solve all of life’s woes, but the growing method uses little more than a pump, liquid growing solution, and indoor fluorescent lighting to grow and maintain plants without an outdoor garden. Your next-generation indoor tomatoes probably won’t be big enough to restore Eden, but will give you a little taste of paradise.

Oftentimes, store-bought hydroponics kits are needlessly expensive; the systems aren’t particularly hard to make yourself, so we’re going to take you through building your own hydroponic “ebb and flow” system. This relatively simple design consists of three main areas: a reservoir from which the solution will be pumped to the plants, a growing bed which is a walled surface where potted plants soak up the solution and grow, and an above-hanging light fixture. Check out this useful diagram from Hydroponics 101:

THINGS YOU’LL NEED

For light fixture:

– ½ inch PVC tubing (how much depends on how tall your system is, and how much support your lighting will need)
– Fluorescent grow lights
– 4 PVC T-connectors
– 4 PVC 90 degree connectors
– Ruler
– Saw
– Chain
– Light timer

For reservoir:

– Plastic tub (the size of your reservoir will dictate that of the garden but it should be large enough to hold enough liquid to water several plants)
– Small pump
– Hydroponic growing solution (MaxiGrow, for example)
– pH tester

For growing bed:

– Pots (must allow liquid to flow in and out)
– Short ½ inch PVC pipe (cut shorter than pot height – think drainage)
– Silicone sealant
– ½ inch drill
– Clay pellets (optional: they give tougher roots something to grab onto, ideal for some plants)
– Plastic container, similar to that used for the reservoir (doesn’t need to be as deep)

BUILDING THE LIGHT FIXTURE

1. Decide the length of your PVC pipes based on the intended size of the hydroponic garden. For a few plants, four ten-inch pipes should be sufficient for the base of the stand. The legs should be around a foot high.

2. Use the T-connectors to connect four pipes for the base.

3. Use the 90-degree connectors to attach the legs.

4. Wrap the chain around the base and use it to hang the grow light.

BUILDING THE RESERVOIR

1. Wash the container well and make sure to rinse out any excess suds.

2. Fill the container with the solution, making sure to follow any manufacturer’s instructions.

3. Configure the pump for use with the timer. It will need to be cycling the solution 3-5 times a day for around 20 minutes per cycle.

4. Insert the pump.

BUILDING THE GROWING BED

1. Drill two ½ inch holes at opposite ends of the floor of the bed. Insert a short PVC pipe into one and the pump hose from the reservoir into the other.

2. Seal the holes around the pipes with sealant.

3. If you’re using clay pellets, wash them and spread them in a thin layer across the floor of the growing bed.

Just like that, you’ve made your own personal paradise and brought tremendous convenience to your kitchen. Fresh vegetables and herbs are now close at hand, regardless of the season. But who’s to say you should stop there? TalkLocal can connect you to the perfect landscaper to bring fertility back to your dilapidated or weed-overrun garden, or get your yard ready for a new one. Get started and see all we can do for you (and for free)!

What does your yard say about you? It might rest outside the walls of your house, but your yard is still part of your home. We burn through hours deciding between pieces of furniture, color swatches, and carpets to make our houses comfortable and expressive; meanwhile, more see a yard than a living room, and the natural beauty of good landscaping is nearly unmatchable. It may seem daunting at first, but we’ve put together three easy DIY landscaping projects to beautify your lawn.

Creating a Space

An important idea in landscaping is that yards shouldn’t just be expanses of green – angles, balance and color should be used to make a yard feel like a space, like a room in a house. Find a diagram of your yard and understand what sort of space you’re dealing with, and then look around your yard to get a feel for it. What sorts of natural landforms are there? If you were to imagine your yard in terms of rooms, what would the rooms look like, what would you do in them, and where would they go? You can create your “walls” through straight angles between trees, flowers, and bushes, or by utilizing walkways.

Gardening

Gardening will allow you to create dynamic and beautiful spaces through arrangement of differently shaped and colored flowers. With a little work and research, you can make something much more impressive than a small square filled with flowers – use the colors to border your house and add personality, or different scents to fill your space with a calming aroma. For a real gardening challenge, try to arrange flowers so they create a vibrant walkway.

Special Landforms

You can also diversify your yard with interesting features, such as rock walkways or small bodies of water. They’re actually very easy to introduce to your yard. For rocks, just imagine what you want them to look like, and buy rocks of the appropriate shape. A small pond is a weekend project: start by contacting your town government to get digging approval, get a pump, materials to line the bottom of the pond, and whatever plants or rocks you wish to decorate its outside.

But we’re all busy, and maybe landscaping isn’t your thing. Luckily, there are professionals who can handle any task, especially landscaping. With our unique search system, all of the obstacles to hiring a professional, such as scheduling, quality, and availability, are things of the past. Don’t waste any of your precious time – head over to TalkLocal now and find the perfect local service professional in half the time it’d take to find your old shovel.