One of the great things about hardwood furniture is that it is an excellent quality wood that if looked after and maintained correctly, it will last for many years to come.
Caring for your Hardwood Furniture
How to maintain the Appearance of Hardwood
Firstly, we suggest a few weeks after receiving of your furniture, you re-oil it. After this it should be done on a regular basis; every 2 months if it is left uncovered. Oiling your furniture will help to maintain and preserve the original colour and will make it more resistant to weathering. Oiling your furniture will also help to minimise surface cracks.
You do not need to treat your furniture this often but doing so will help keep the furniture as good as new!
If left untreated, the timber will change to a dull grey colour.
We do recommend a furniture cover to help protect it and preserve its colour, particularly throughout the winter months. If you use a cover, it will only need oiling every so often as it will not exposed to the weather from day to day. We offer a range of waterproof furniture covers on our website.
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Roses
Remember to check roses regularly for pests and blackspot and other diseases, and spray if necessary with a recommended fungicide and/or insecticide such as Rose Clear Ultra. And if your garden is in need of some flower power, roses are the perfect solution.
Hydrangea Sheila
Garden Games
If your family is already getting bored of the summer holidays, entertain them in the safety of your own garden. You can find lots of excellent garden games and other equipment to turn parts of your garden into a fun playground. Such as giant garden dominoes or even a Badminton set.
Pruning
Many summer-flowering plants that have finished flowering can be cut back now and may produce further flushes of flowers. After pruning give the plants a quick pick-me-up by watering on a high potash liquid feed or sprinkle Fish Blood and Bone around the base of the plant. You can find a great range of gardening tools online such as Fiskars pruners which are ideal for the average gardener.
Ericaceous Plants
Rhododendrons, camellias and azaleas will be setting their flower buds for next year, so it’s important that they never go short of water at this time of year or the flower buds may fail next spring. Feeding with a liquid ericaceous feed will also produce more and better flowers. Mulching with bark or similar products will help maintain soil moisture levels and insulate the roots from damaging high temperatures.
Watering
Make sure your plants produce a display to be proud of by giving them just the right amount of water they need. Well-established plants may not need regular watering but newly planted ones, bedding plants and plants in containers will need regular watering. There are many new products that will make your watering quick and easy this summer, such as the Hozelock auto reel, which automatically rolls back up when you have finished watering.
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The Meteor BBQ Great Value?
The Meteor Barbecue from Outback was introduced in 2011 and is designed to fill the gap in the Outback range between the Omega gas barbecues and the Excelsior and Spectrum at the high spec end of the range. With more features than the Excelsior 3 burner but for a lot less money, something has to be missing from the Meteor right?
Meteor Barbecue Great Value?
The Outback Meteor barbecue includes;
1, Main cooking area: 61 × 44.5 cm.
2, Porcelain coated cast iron grills x 2.
3, Porcelain coated warming rack.
4, Stainless steel burners x 4
5, porcelain-enamelled ‘flavorizer’ bars.
6, Built-in thermometer.
7, Electronic ignition.
8, Front panel with storage tray
9, Gas side burner.
10, Wheels.
11, Dimensions – 130 × 21.5 × 121 cm.
12, Recommended fuel: Propane gas (not included)
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Cast Iron Chimeneas
One of the best things about Cast Iron Chimeneas is the amount of heat that can be given out, you can fire Cast Iron Chimeneas to the maximum with no fear of cracking or breaking (although the finish may damage). Cast Chimeneas can be left out in all weathers and as the heat dissipates very quickly through the metal it will quickly warm the patio all around the body.
Cast Iron Chimeneas
To keep your Chimenea looking great keep oily rags handy to wipe over your Chimenea when cool to help protect the Chimenea from excessive rusting. If the Chimenea is fired to high temperatures the heat resistant paint used to colour the Cast Iron Chimenea may burn off, but can be repainted with any high temperature paint if you wish, although most people like the antique effect of a well-used Chimenea!
Quick tips: Wipe over with an oily rag after use. Use any heat resistant paint to touch up. Lift by the base not the funnel.
Don’t forget, Cast Iron Chimeneas get very hot in use and should not be touched for some time afterwards.
Clay Chimeneas
Clay Chimeneas are commonly classed as the best looking of all chimeneas and work in quite a different way to cast Iron. Within Clay Chimeneas the heat builds and is slowly released through the Chimenea walls which radiates slower than Cast Iron.
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“We were all chuffed to bits when we heard that we’d won!” quotes Managing Director, Mark Doughty of Doughty Cakes Ltd, Lincoln.
The Winning Picture Sisyrinchium Rocky Point
“We heard about Crowders exciting “Clickety Snap” photography competition during our recent drive to approach local garden centres with our latest range of locally sourced & own label cakes. A couple of members of staff decided that they would like to submit an entry to the online competition. We have some keen gardeners in our midst so between them they emailed their submission. To be fair, we didn’t think that we would hear anything more, so it came as even more of a surprise when we’d heard that we had actually won!”
Doughty Cakes plans to spend their online voucher “winnings” of £200.00 by purchasing a fantastic gas barbeque by Outback. “So that we can re-introduce our summer family fun-day for staff and their families, everyone gets to bring their kids, we hire a bouncy castle and we all head outside and hope for the best from the British weather!”
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