Your Questions About Gardening

GardenersCardiff answers:

A sock puppet (Kay, I know what’s dumb, but make it cute!)
Vanilla chap stick
Cat eye contacts
Easy blend black eye shadow
Pearly nail polish
Paint! The basic paint brushes
Fire works!
Colored toilet paper! (You know that would be awesome)
Disappearing ink
Asian lanterns
Do people still like amusement parks in their late 20s?

Uh… That’s all I got. You could go to one of those ceramic places and paint your own ceramic thing. Look for color me mines and stuff. Those are really nice presents that work for anyone and you can say you made it!

GardenersCardiff answers:

1 Wash the garden ornament with clear water. Do not use soap. Spray the garden ornament using a hose with a spray nozzle attached.

2 Brush away any loose flakes using a dry scrub brush, or use an air sprayer.

3 Place the garden ornament on a turn table to make the painting process easier.

4 Apply concrete stain to the garden ornament as a protective base coat.

Lay the garden ornament down, and brush on the concrete stain to the bottom and let it dry.

Spread concrete stain on the rest of the garden ornament when the bottom is dry and you are able to place it back upright. Let this dry.

5 Paint the garden ornament with latex paints in colors of your choice.

Create a plan for the paint scheme of your garden ornament before you begin.

Brush all the parts of the garden ornament that you wish to be the same color while you have that paint color available and the paintbrush is full of that color paint.

Clean the paintbrush between colors using tap water or water with a few drops of dishwashing detergent mixed in to it. This is sufficient for cleaning latex paint from the paintbrush, so paint thinner will not be necessary.

6 Dry the garden ornament for 24 hours before proceeding.

7 Apply a non-yellowing exterior latex sealer to the entire garden ornament.

8 Dry the garden ornament for 24 hours before moving it to its ideal location.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Download Google sketchup- it’s free, and the tutorials are excellent- it’s easy to use and to learn and will do a tremendous job- very professional of designing your home, and it even has all kinds of free articles, such as furniture, stoves, cabinets, even cars, pets and people to put in your project. It takes a few days to get pretty good with it, but, it’s loads of fun to learn. I began designing with Auto-cad in 1990- and designed houses, commercial projects and even high rise apartment buildings. I am now retired. But, having all sorts of fun with Google Sketchup- I only wish they had it back when I was working in the business. Also, buy yourself a plans book- you know, the catalog of “hundred” best homes, etc. Find a house plan that sort of goes with the design you have in mind and build on that. Designing homes is not as easy as it seems it would be. There are all sorts of pitfalls to avoid and mistakes to be easily made. You should read a book or two on the subject before serioulsy tryign to design one for real.