Install a Faucet for a Rainwater Barrel

With our rainwater barrel now fully supported with the fabricated rain barrel platform, we will now be able to have a faucet or a spigot installed. The raised platform for the rainwater barrel is 14 inches high, is all-metal and heavily welded. It's adequate to carry the load of a fully filled rain water barrel.

Fortunately, the workers who worked on the platform, as well as the garden pergola and garden gate arch, even volunteered to finish the job of installing the rain barrel faucet. They had boring tools like a power drill and sealant, they said. I knew I could make it DIY, but who couldn't refuse free labor? All they asked me was to buy a faucet kit that had locking nuts for mounting in a container.

Raised Platform for a Rain Water Barrel

With several metal scraps that remained from the construction of our garden gate arch and the garden pergola, I had to think of what else there is to do with the scrap. There were tubular pipes and round steel bars. Sell the whole lot to scrap buyers? Or just store it away somewhere? It's metal and will hardly deteriorate anyway.

The foreman and the workers did a fine job on the two projects that I wanted something usable that can be fabricated from the scrap metal. They were still working at my neighbor's house and so I had time to think. They had tools to work on the metal scrap like the high-speed cutter and welding machine, plus there was still some excess cement and sand remaining. It would be a waste not to seize the opportunity.

New Garden Pergola or Arbor

Now that we have the construction of the new garden gate arch out of the way, we gave the foreman the go ahead and build a garden pergola adjacent to the front of the house. The idea for the garden pergola came when we realized we were running out of spaces in our wall-mounted rods for hanging baskets.

But that's not the only reason.

Our wall-mounted hanging rods, which is part of our garden nursery, is at the back of the house. The back of the house faces the east and it isn't as sunny as we'd like it. There is a neighbor's tree behind us that gives unnecessary shade for our backyard and back garden. So the back garden only gets filtered sunlight until around 10 am. Then it gets direct sunlight until 12 noon. Past that time, the house starts to shade the back garden as the sun moves to the west or the front of our house.

New Garden Gate Arch

For a long while, I've been contemplating a garden arch that will grace our front fence. There are 5 posts at the front fence, and I even thought of a series of arches from one end of the fence up to the other end. The reasons for not pushing with this elaborate plan are varied but the most compelling one is that it will block our view of passersby and houses across the street.

Having thick vines climbing on several arches above our existing grill fence will also mean a little less sunlight for our front lawn and garden. Our front lawn and garden isn't very spacious and we need all the sunlight we can get for the plants in the garden to grow and flower. We mostly have ornamental flowering plants and so the need for plenty of sunlight

Where to Buy Cheap Hanging Baskets

Wanting to fill up that void on a blank garden wall or corner without taking much footprint? Then garden plants in hanging baskets may be your best bet!

A hanging basket is a suspended container used for growing decorative plants. Typically they are hung from buildings, where garden space is at a premium, and from street furniture for environmental enhancement. They may also be suspended from free standing frames sometimes called hanging basket trees.

Although you can make your own DIY or homemade hanging baskets, you may want to avoid that route. This is if you intend to have several hanging baskets lined up and are after that uniform look. After taking an interest with hanging garden plants, I decided to look for hanging baskets that would serve my gardening needs and not break the budget.

Remove Odor from Dog and Cat Poo

For months I've been having problems with stray cats and my dog doing their toilet activities in my front lawn. I could sweep up the poo and put it in a compost pit. But the odor from the leftover poo on the grass could be so bad that I couldn't linger much longer to tend to the garden. Not only that, even the compost pit would smell really bad and flies just swarm around. Ugh.

I found a product at SM Ace Hardware that removes this odor. It is in powdered form and curiously, it doesn't seem to have a name brand. But for almost Php100 it weighs 2kg (that's a lot!) and effectively removes the bad odor.

Tool Belt Bag for Trellis Gardening

If you're like me and work on high trellises, chances are you'd want to use something like this. Linemen who work on electric posts or handymen who work on roofs use something similar. This one could easily contain a hammer, screwdrivers, pliers, measuring tape, pencils, etc.

I bought this tool belt bag as a Father's Day present for me (thanx DH!) and cost Php419.75. It has a belt loop but doesn't come with a belt - so I have to find an old thick belt for it.

Garden Grass Shears

A couple of weeks ago I bought a pair of garden grass shears from Starmall Alabang. I've been looking for a suitable pair for a while now and I found this pair to be easy on the hand. They're made in Taiwan with the name AMES and cost Php359.75.