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Tin Ceiling

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My husband and I have been renovating our house for the last five years. 3 years ago we started to put in a new ceiling in the living room dining room. It’s still not done! Oh we purchased our tin ceiling tiles and I antiqued them. It’s going to look very nice if it ever gets done, but that’s about all that’s been done so far.

You see, a short while after we started renovating the whole living room/ dining room my husband I both became ill. Different illnesses and no nothing that can be traced back to the house or our renovating projects. We had finished our walls with venetian plaster – so that looks good, but don’t look up! We have wooden uh what do you call them? Slats? running along the ceiling, ready to attach the tin ceiling. We don’t really have all that much to do, but even so, it’s still not happening.

I’m getting frustrated. So frustrated in fact that I went looking for Local Contractor Services. Yep. maybe it’s time to stop doing this project ourselves.

I found Contractor Clicks and I’m going through the site looking for just the right type of contractor for the job. I think I might find the right type of contractor under room remodeling. Hey, they even offer 4 free estimates from contractors who’ve been working for at least three years. Alright, well then If can’t get my husband on the move to help me finish the ceiling I might just go back to that site and get me self a contractor.

Hey, I did my part of the job. I did 600 square feet of venetian plaster – two shades, 5 layers- over three weeks! Hand polished and everything. Then I opened up all the boxes of tin ceiling tiles and painted them, and antiqued them – all 83 2.5′ by 2.5′ tin ceiling tiles. All my husband has to do is put them up – with my help. I don’t think that’s too much to ask is it? Well if we don’t start working on it within the next month I’m going to get a contractor in here.






Ground Covers

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If you have a small area of lawn like I do, or if you are tired of cutting the grass once or twice every week have you ever thought of putting in ground cover instead? You could carpet the ground entirely with low growing, easy care plants, known, naturally enough as ground covers.

You can use annuals as temporary ground cover – nasturtiums are excellent – but the best ground covers are spreading evergreen perennials or dense, low growing shrubs. Flowers are a feature of many, but far more important is the ability to make a carpet dense enough to smother weeds without growing too tall – ankle height is about right.

A good ground cover needs to be presentable all year; to need little in the way of trimming or spraying; and to be easy to propagate to cut down on cost. It is possible to weave patterns with several species, but the stronger will tend to crowd out the weaker, and simplicity usually looks better anyway. Ground covers cannot be walked on.

Prepare your ground cover bed as thoroughly as for any other plant, plant at the appropriate season, and mulch at once. The last thing you want is weeds getting in between the young plants. If you like, you can plant some low growing annuals between your permanent plants – and they will remind you to water and fertilize. Ground covers may be low, low maintenance when they are established, but when young they need care.

Here are some ground covers for both sun and shade:

Table 1: Ground cover plants for full sun.
Plant Name Height (in) Remarks
Achillea tomentosa
Woolly yarrow 		2-4 Grayish foliage in low mats.
Antennaria spp.
Pussytoes		 1-2 Persistent gray-green foliage in dense mats; excellent for rocky slopes.
Artemisia spp.
Sage		 10-15 Silvery foliage; A. schmidtiana (silver mound sage) most common.
Atriplex corrugata
Mat saltbush		 4-6 Evergreen; foliage greenish-white; for salty soils.
Centaurea montana
(perennial bachelor button)

Mountain bluet		 15-18 Grayish foliage; blue flowers.
Cerastium tomentosum
Snow-in-summer 		6 Gray foliage; white flowers; very aggressive.
Cytisus decumbens
Creeping broom		 4-8 Green stems with tiny leaves; yellow, pea-like flowers in May.
Delosperma nubigenum
Yellow ice plant		 1-2 Succulent, light-green foliage; yellow flowers.
Duchesnea indica
Mock strawberry		 4-6 Aggressive creeper; looks much like strawberry; yellow flowers; inedible, red fruit.
Eriogonum umbellatum
Sulphur flower		 3-6 Showy flower stalk to 8 inches tall; foliage in low mat.
Euphorbia epithymoides
(polychroma)

Cushion spurge		 12-18 Mounds of foliage that change from reddish to green in spring, then scarlet in fall.
Euphorbia marginata
Snow-on-the-mountain		 4-8 Green and white foliage; very aggressive.
Festuca ovina glauca
Blue fescue 		6-8 Tufts of grayish, grassy foliage.
Juniperus horizontalis

Creeping juniper

Some common clones include:

‘Bar Harbor’

‘Blue Chip’

‘Hughes’

‘Webberi’

‘Wiltoni’ (‘Blue Rug’) 		 

 

 

10

10

10

4

4

 Perhaps the best year-round cover; many
clones and foliage hues available.

 

Blue-green; purplish winter color.

Bluish foliage year-round.

Silvery-blue; distinct radial branching.

Very low mat; fine texture.

Very low; silver-blue; purplish tinge in winter.
Penstemon pinifolius
Pineleaf penstemon		 6-10 Has needle-like leaves and orange-red flowers; takes heat well.
Phlox subulata
Moss pink or creeping phlox		 6-8 Reddish, white or lavender flowers; moss-like foliage.
Polygonum affine
Himalayan border jewel		 12-18 Red, showy flowers late in season; excellent ground cover for dry areas.
Potentilla verna
Creeping potentilla		 1/2-1 Very low mat with yellow, showy flowers; aggressive.
Ranunculus repens
Creeping buttercup		 1-2 Yellow, showy flowers on creeping runners up to 2 feet long.
Santolina chamaecyparissus
Lavender-cotton		 10-12 Blue-gray, persistent foliage in dense mats.
Sedum spp.
Stonecrop (sedum)		 1-15 Many forms available; not usually competitive with weeds.
Sempervivum spp.
Houseleek, hen and chicks		 2-4 Forms dense, evergreen mats; grows in very poor soils.
Thymus serpyllum
Mother-of-thyme		 3-6 Low, mat-forming herb with tiny leaves; purple flowers; related species, woolly thyme, has gray-green foliage.
Veronica prostrata
Prostrate speedwell		 1-2 Dark green foliage; deep blue flowers in short spikes.

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Table 2: Ground cover plants for shade.
Plant Name Height (in) Remarks
Aegopodium podagraria ‘variegatum’
Bishop’s weed		 10-12 Variegated, green and white foliage; aggressive.
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi
Kinnikinnick		 4-6 Evergreen; red, edible berries; use beneath established evergreens in acid soils.
Campanula carpatica
Carpathian harebell		 6-14 Can be aggressive; blue or white flowers.
Convallaria majalis
Lily-of-the-valley		 6-10 Fragrant, white flowers in May-June; inedible, red berries; aggressive.
Galium odorata
Sweet woodruff		 6-8 Very aggressive; one of the best covers under shrubs; white, fragrant flowers in May-June.
Lonicera japonica ‘Halliana’
Hall’s Japanese honeysuckle		 6-12 Will also grow in full sun, but forms denser mats in shade.
Mahonia repens
Creeping Oregon grape		 6-12 Evergreen; yellow flowers in spring; holly-like foliage.
Penstemon caespitosus
Creeping or mat penstemon		 1-2 Very prostrate mat of tiny narrow leaves; flowers in May-June; purplish.
P. strictus
Rocky Mountain penstemon		 1-2 Blue flowers in June-July.
Vinca minor
Periwinkle		 4-6 Semievergreen; white or purple flowers in spring.

I hope that this article helps you decide on the correct ground cover for your garden if you choose to cover an area with these practical plants.

Get your Newgie News

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I’ve been using a new site to view news lately. You’re going to love the name – It’s called Newgie.com. I’ve been using the site to stay on top of the news that I’m interested in hearing about.

It’s very easy to register on the site and once you are a member (free) you can start selecting news categories that you want to see when you first visit your Newgie page. The site ranks stories based on the interest that other users have shown. Which means that when you log in you have the hottest stories of the day literally right before your very eyes.

Newgie is very easy to use. You can navigate in two major ways. You can go to your My Newgie page and if you’ve already set up your preferences all the stories from the topics and categories that you selected will be there for you to browse through. Otherwise, you can click on your My account page and set up your preferences there, see the stories that you’ve viewed most recently, and manage your categories, RSS feeds and communities.

It was easy to start selecting categories that I was interested in. You can do all of this from your account page. Just scroll down to the categories section on your account page, then click on “Manage my categories”, from there you can see which ones you’ve subscribed to already or add more categories. Once you’ve selected the types of categories that you like you can adjust the options for each one- such as how many articles it will show you, their rank, and whether it will show you the full article or just a summary to begin with.

You can pick articles that you’ve read and rate them – just hover over the title of the article and description pops up – when you see the pop up you can add the article to your favorites, rate it, recommend it for other Newgies, or discuss it.

Before trying out this news site I used to visit Yahoo News quite often. What is different about Newgie is that when you log on you see the most popular articles of the day in your categories, where as on Yahoo News you get a mix of everything and they’re not always the top stories that you are hoping to find. I think I might like Newgie better than the Yahoo News site.

Newgie also lets you submit your own RRS feed to the site. If it’s approved you can create a Newgie chicklet so that others can add your feed to their newgie account.

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