Welcome to our Backyard Blog where we share our love of outdoor living, our newest Backyard Getaway projects, community events, “Re-purposed Backyard” art for the garden how-to instructions and product review and how-to videos. To make your visit a little easier we have divided our posts into three categories below or you can simply scroll down to read all our posts.
Backyard Ponderings:
[pon-der] verb to consider thoughtfully; meditate
Backyard Ponder-ing is all about sharing our love of outdoor living with you. Read about our newest Backyard Getaway projects, community events, caring for gardens, ponds and Koi, sustainability and how to enhance your life through outdoor living. Read our latest
Backyard Pondering blog post!
Re-Purposed Backyard:
The Re-purposed backyard blog is about making something new out of something old or discarded, creating art out of re-purposed, recycled or re-used items, something fun for your garden or useful for your outdoor living space. What you can create is only limited by what you can imagine. Our re-purposed backyard blog is where we share how-to instructions on what we are creating for our re-purposed backyard. Be sure to visit our Re-purposed Backyard Gallery to view just a few of the many items we have created and read our latest Re-Purposed Backyard blog posts.
Backyard Buzz
Have you seen the latest buzz? Visit our
Backyard Buzz page or check out the Backyard Buzz on the
Backyard Getaway YouTube channel. In each episode Dave tests and reviews the latest and tried & true garden, pet and pond products and shares how -to project instructions. Before you buy or build be sure to get the Buzz!
We hope you enjoy our blog and visit often to read our latest articles. If there is something you would like to see in an article contact us and let me know what you would like to read about. If you like what you read please share with your friends and like us on facebook. Backyard Getaway is now on Instagram.
Part I Whether you are new to the hobby of Koi keeping or a seasoned ponder, you may have questions about ponds and Koi keeping. Here are a few Koi & Pond questions sent in by our Sarasota Pet Magazine readers: I keep hearing that the big birds will eat the Koi in my pond. I live on the
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Dave is busy as ever creating Backyard Getaways for our customers. Here are just a couple before and after images of our latest Backyard Getaway landscape renovations: A peaceful retreat. Melanie needed to replace sod that was dying and too high near her pool, at the same time she had a wasted space that was covered in shade. We removed
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UPDATE: “The Art of Being Floridian” flamingo flock tour has begun! These fabulous flamingos, painted by 20 artists from New Port Richey to Avon Park, are on display throughout July at the Safety Harbor Library followed by the Oldsmar Library in August, the Arts Center of Manatee in September, and the Largo Cultural Center in October.. They are helping to spread
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Dave and I are proud to announce that Backyard Getaway is the newest business partner of the Be Floridian fertilizer education campaign. Be Floridian is coordinated by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program with support from Manatee, Sarasota and Pinellas counties and the city of Tampa. The campaign promotes “Gardening like a Floridian” by complying with local fertilizer ordinances and using
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LocalShops1, with Valentines in mind, asked local business couples how they balance working together with living together. 14 local couples share their secrets to working together without killing each other, how they make it work and what is the best part of working together. Not familiar with LocalShops1? It is a grass roots coalition of hundreds of independently owned local
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Recently Dave spent some time renovating one of our customers entire yard. The front, sides and backyard were all gutted and a new Florida friendly yard was created complete with Xeriscaped plant areas, hardscape paver walkways, a Koi pond and of course some sod for the dogs to play on. Here are a few of the before, during and after
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With the arrival of cooler weather many bird species are migrating south for the winter. For our northern neighbors seed and food supplies are depleted due to snow cover while in Florida the supply is low due to the demand. Setting up a birdfeeder or bird feeding station in your garden for the birds can help keep migrating and native
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We’ve talked about edible pond plants and versatile pond plants that can be used in both the pond and landscape, but did you know that many common garden and water garden plants are toxic? Some of these commonly used toxic plants can be harmful to our pets as well as to humans. House plants can also be dangerous. Toxic plants that
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It seems simple, plant a garden & your helping the environment. The truth is what you plant will determine how much you will need to water, fertilize & spray for pests. It is important to know how your landscape & gardening practices can have both positive & negative effects on Florida’s environment. Below are several sustainable gardening tips you can
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With Halloween just around the corner I thought it would be fun to share some interesting facts about bats and help put many myths and untruths about bats to rest. For instance, Bats are not blind. They have the same senses we do, sense of smell, hearing, taste, sight and touch. Bats will not attack you and if you see
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[pon-der] verb to consider thoughtfully; meditate