Here are some tips to get a Clematis started up your tree!:

-Choose a tree with rough bark, like a maple or oak. A smooth tree, like a cherry, with not get enough grip for your Clematis as it grows.

-Plant it on the shady side of the tree trunk and add compost. Mulch well. This enables you to give its roots the shade they need to start well.

-If you are not planting by another vine, then add a way for the Clematis to make it on to the tree bark. Use small bamboo canes, fishing line or twigs to make a scaffold for it to climb.

-Help the Clematis along by occasionally tucking its loose new growth into the rough bark of the maple.

It has turned out beautifully! I especially like the dreamy blue of Clematis 'Perle d'Azur' when viewed on the tree trunk against the blue sky. I hope yours does too!

Here are some of my best tips: .

#1 - Use as many free materials in your landscape as you can. Every part of the world has at least one thing in abundance that you can use for free, be it gravel, rocks or stones; wood,pallets or pine needles; dumpsters, landfill sites or Craig's List and Freecycling networks as cheap sources for repurposed items. Find out what's in your own neighbourhood or town and use it! I've used my local freecycling network to find plants and shrubs for free. I got a whole lilac hedge that way, it really works!!

#2 - Beg for plant divisions or cuttings from family, friends and neighbours. Anyone who has perennials , bulbs or tubers will have to be dividing them up every so often and will be happy to let you have the extras.

#3 - Look for local gardening clubs, they usually have plant sales once or twice a year to raise money for the club and you can get beautiful plants for much less than gardening centers sell them. Plus you know they will survive in your climate because the local gardeners have grown them.

#4 - Watch for end-of-season sales. You can pick up loads of plants at a discount from department stores that have seasonal garden centers. That's where you can pick up your trees and shrubs for less and save big!

#5 - Grow your own plants from seed. Some plants are super simple to grow, you can even just toss the seeds out in your garden at the right time and they'll grow well. Hardy geraniums,sunflowers and pansies are easy to start from seed. Poppies and cosmos are good examples of seeds you can just sow directly in the garden. Opium poppies can even be sown while there is still snow on the garden

#6 - Grow plants that self-seed or spread easily. Examples are creeping thyme, culinary thyme, Johnny Jump-ups, Ladies' Mantle, campanula, euphorbia, lamium, bugleweed, poppies and bee balm. I don't quite understand the desire for growing borderline plants in the garden. I personally don't want to drag some plant kicking and screaming into my garden, I'd much rather have ones that are happily growing and flowering and self-seeding all over.

The best part about rampant growers and self-seeders is that every year, you can dig up the extras and sell them at a yard sale to make some extra cash for the landscaping items that you can't get for free.

Hope I've been able to give you at least one tip you can use. Happy gardening!

#landscaping #gardening #Maygarden

This garage conversion allowed for an open floor plan and first floor remodel that successfully matched the family's lifestyle and remodeling goals. These goals included: a larger family room; an open floor plan connecting the main living areas; better flow and functionality for both daily living and entertaining; better storage and organizational opportunities; and defined study and reading areas that were still connected to the heart of the main living areas.

To this end, this whole house remodel created an open flow for the main living spaces, including a new kitchen, wet bar, dining room, family room, sun room, and study. Connecting these remodeled living spaces to the new garage is a new mud room and laundry area.

Also integral to this remodel was to make the garage addition seamless to the existing home, making it look from both the exterior and interior as if an addition had never been made at all.

"We are honored to be recognized by our peers in the remodeling industry for our work" said Roone Unger, EXOVATIONS founder and President. "This award is one that our entire company takes great pride in receiving". Contractors from seven regions around the country vie for CotY Awards on an annual basis, and all regional winners will now be eligible for the National CotY Awards. National winners will be announced at NARI's Evening of ExcellenceSM on Saturday, April 21, 2012 at the Gaylord Texan Hotel and Conference Center, located in Grapevine (Dallas), Texas.

All projects submitted for judging were an improvement or an addition to an existing structure, with the exception of one category, "Residential Exterior Specialty." Otherwise, new construction projects were not eligible.

Competing projects were completed between July 1, 2010, and November 30, 2011, and were not submitted in previous NARI National contests. An impartial panel of judges, experts within the remodeling industry and associated fields, selected winners based on each entrant's binders, which include "before and after" photography and project descriptions. Judging focused on problem solving, functionality, aesthetics, craftsmanship, innovation, degree of difficulty and entry presentation.

EXOVATIONS' submitted project was for a 1970's barn style exterior with a Gambrel style roof. The client had envisioned upon purchase of the home a more craftsman-style look. The first call of action was for an EXOVISION™-Architectural Rendering which included a detailed drawing for the new front portico, redesigned front stoop, shake siding, roofing, shutters, columns with stacked stone pedestals, carriage style garage doors, gutters, downspouts, and a metal shed roof styled eyebrow return to better blend the brick and siding juncture. All of the work was completed as drawn and desired and in a very timely fashion. Upon completion of the project, the client had this to say," I am shocked that my house now looks exactly how I envisioned it. For the first time in 10 years, I actually love my home. I think my neighbors must like it too, because they drive by, then slow down, really take a look at my house, and then give me a thumbs up. This was a huge project and it was finished ahead of schedule, on budget, and without any problems."

To be considered for a CotY Award, a company must be a NARI member in good standing. The entries of this year's competition totaled nearly $90 million worth of remodeling projects. NARI members represent an elite group of the approximately 800,000 companies and individuals in the U.S. identifying themselves as remodelers.

EXOVATIONS was founded in 1996, and is one of the largest privately owned and operated home renovation companies in the Southeast. Other honors and awards for EXOVATIONS include being the 2005 Chrysalis Award winner for Best Exterior Facelift, Qualified Remodeler Magazine's 2005 Master Design Award winner, Consumers' Choice Award winner in 2009, 2010, and 2011 and being named to Remodeling Magazine's "Big 50" class of 2010. With its headquarters in Cumming, Georgia, EXOVATIONS serves the entire metro Atlanta and Middle Georgia markets, offering a complete line of home exterior products and services for homeowners including the design and installation of siding, windows and doors, roofing, decks, screen porches, front porches, gutters, gutter protection, and much more. For more information visit EXOVATIONS.com.

About NARI: The National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) is the only trade association dedicated solely to the remodeling industry. The Association, which represents member companies nationwide-comprised of 63,000 remodeling contractors- is "The Voice of the Remodeling Industry."™ To learn more about membership, visit www.NARI.org or contact national headquarters, based in Des Plaines, Ill., at (847) 298-9200.

Homeowners are estimated to spend a total of $110.1 billion on home improvements in the U.S. through second quarter of 2012.

NARI is a professional association whose members voluntarily subscribe to a strict code of ethics.

Consumers can also call the NARI National hotline at 847-298-9200 and request a free copy of NARI's brochure, "How to Select a Remodeling Professional," or visit www.nari.org and click on the homeowner's guide for more information. For information on green remodeling, visit www.greenremodeling.org.