The cheapest and easiest method for drying flowers, including roses, is by far the process of air drying. The process is extremely straightforward; simply follow these easy instructions.
1. Begin with perfect and unflawed roses on their stems.It is essential that the roses are  in perfect condition; if they aren’t they will wither and the petals will fall off.
2.If there are any leaves on the stalks, remove them.
3. Bunch the roses up together in a way that allows them fan out.
4. Tie the bottom of the stalks with string or a rubber band.
5. Hang them upside down in a dark, dry place for two to three weeks to ensure that they are absolutely dry.

Turning roses into pot pourri is a simple and rewarding process, and they will give off a delicious perfume that lasts for weeks.
To make a pot pourri, follow the air dry technique that is listed above. Once the roses are dried, simply take the blooms and separate them. You can put the shreds in a nice porcelain container, or a sealed piece of hosiery.

And pot pourri makes an excellent gift – especially when it’s as personal as something from your own garden.

Pergolas make a great addition to the garden. They are an excellent place to entertain friends and family. Or simply a place to relax. And, of course, they can also be fine place to grow some climbing roses.

Winter is fast coming up on us, and autumnal weather has already eclipsed the mildly sunny summer we may or may not have enjoyed! The brief bursts of sunshine this weekend have probably signalled the last warm period we’re going to enjoy for a while. Thus you are probably now thinking that you should retreat from your garden, having prepared for spring and done all the maintenance you could bear. Surely that now the weather is cooler, it is simply impractical to use your patio and garden for leisure and relxation? Wrong.

On Patio Gear, we are proud to stock a wide range of  fire baskets and braziers, from a range of trusted manufacturers, like Gardecoa and La Hacienda. The point of these products is to allow you, even in the winter months, to enjoy your garden. We accept that it probably isn’t the greatest barbecue weather, but that should not mean that you cannot enjoy a cup of hot coffee or a glass of rich red wine in the crisp evening air, enjoying the heat and warmth that comes from a brazier or firepit. Indeed since fire was discovered, heating our bodies has been its main purpose: why should things change?

This brazier with BBQ grill from Gardeco and this Quebec fire basket from La Hacienda are both good examples of our range of products. At the bottom of each brazier is a metal tray, designed to catch falling ash and debris from the flames; The braziers have semi-open sides: this allows the heat to have maximum efficiency, heating all areas nearby.

Buy a fire basket or brazier today from www.patiogear.co.uk. You won’t regret it.

Our Living Flame Patio Heaters are brilliant examples of the innovative fusing that many of our products are imbued with - stylish design and impressive functionality. Floor Standing, the living flame models are excellent at keeping you cosy on cold autumn and winter nights. This means that you are able to make the most of your patio for an extended time.

The two models both feature an aluminium reflector (46cm diameter) and a flame heater (contained by high temperature resistant glass tubes). The heaters are constructed from either stainless steel or powder coated black steel,relative to the model, and both have aluminium legs. Also included in the box is a fitted regulator and hose. The Living Flame Heaters also feature wheels for easy manoeuvrability.

 The heaters are available in stainless steel and matte black. 

Unit size: 223cm (H), weight 25KG.

If you have purchased an fire pit on www.patiogear.co.uk (or anywhere for that matter), there is a high possibility of iron being used in its construction. Questions as to how to care for such fire pits inevitabily arise, especially as we progress into the colder months.

The first and most obvious pointer on how to care for your fire pit is to purchase a cover to keep the rain out: this will prevent most weathering, rusting and development of leaks.

If you plan not to use your fire pit for a while, then cover it and store it inside. This will give greater protection from the elements and prevent dust build up.

After use, be sure to clean away unnecessary remnants of the fire (and if you have been cooking, anything from that too).

A periodic application of oil to any metal areas of the fire pit will prevent rusting.

Simple tips then; most of these are easy, quick jobs so don’t let your fire pit go to ruin because you can’t spare two minutes. If you follow these tips it should last and last and last.

With the Summer drawing to a close and the Autumn nearly upon us, you may be thinking that now is a good time to reatreat from your garden and abandon it until the new year. But, why should you have to give in and stop enjoying your garden just because it is getting colder?

www.patiogear.co.uk sells a range of fire pits that are a perfect, stylish addition to your garden and will allow you to sit outside at night well into autumn and winter, enjoying the crisp sights and smells of the seasons.

With a bowl, grill and mesh covering this copper effect fire pit creates a a sharply functional centrepiece, and this Pisa Fire Pit from La Hacienda offers a striking, modern design.

At a great price, any of our Fire Pits should make a welcome addition to your patio and will extend the period you can spend in it. The rustic yet modern design of the fire pits we stock bring a primal, contemporary feel and will give you more engagment with your garden!

If you have purchased garden furniture, it may well be made of teak. A major selling point of such furniture is its inherent resistance to weathering. That being said, of course some care will need to be taken.

However, teak does not need to be protected. If left in its natural state, it has the unique quality of being virtually maintenance-free. In fact, teak can be left outside all year round, surviving even the most extreme weather conditions. Therefore, teak is often considered the gold standard for outdoor furniture.

Sealer

If left untreated, teak wood will eventually turn a silver colour. This is known as patina and does not harm the wood or affect its resistance in anyway. Teak sealer is recommended to preserve the natural honey color or to darken the wood. The liquid creates UV protection to keep the sun from graying the furniture and a fungicide to prevent the growth of mold and mildew on the surface of your furniture. Teak sealers can be applied to either new teak or old teak furniture (after it has been cleaned). It is meant to preserve the color of the wood and is breathable, letting the natural oils escape - varnish is likely to bubble or peel.

Sealers and preservatives serve both as protectants and stains. Generally, the darker the stain, the more sun protection it provides, and the less often it needs to be reapplied. For furniture with an ageing varnish that is peeling, cracking or bubbling, it is recommended that you sand this finish off and use a teak sealer or just let the teak stay bare.

Preservative

Applying the preservative is straightforward. On the first application, the wood should be allowed to stand in the sun for a week or two to allow the wood grain to open. A coat of teak sealer should be sprayed on and rubbed in with a rag. Two coats should be applied in this manner, to all surfaces, top, bottom, sides and between any slats. The area underneath the furniture should be protected with a drop cloth or newsprint as most sealers will stain concrete. After the first application, teak sealer should be reapplied every year by cleaning the wood with mild detergent and water and spraying and rubbing in a coat only on the surfaces that get sun.

After the furniture is sealed, very little care is needed to preserve the finish. Occasional washing with soap and water will remove normal soil. Oils from foods, wine, coffee and some condiments will penetrate the sealer and may leave a stain. To avoid this, a teak clear coat can be applied to the table top to improve stain resistance.

Oiling (or why not to)

Teak is protected by its own natural oils that migrate to the surface of the wood and make the wood virtually impervious to water. As such, the use of varnish, water sealers, and oil on Teak furniture is not recommended. Products such as varnish and polyurethane will peel and chip and are difficult to remove without vigorous sanding. Oiling teak will not prevent the wood from graying,and often results in mold and mildew growing on the furniture (which usually shows up as black dots or patches.) Removing mold and mildew on the surface will require washing the furniture with bleach and soap followed by sanding.

Cleaning

To clean weathered teak, a two part cleaner consisting of a step involving a base such as caustic soda and a step involving an acid, such as phosphoric acid. This product is easy to use and will produce dramatic results. First remove the piece from any finished surface or remove any items that might be affected by the cleaning process. Teak cleaner will not hurt the lawn or fiberglass but it may damage painted surfaces or stain a patio, always wear rubber gloves and goggles when using this type of cleaner. Using a hose, wet the wood thoroughly. Open the applicator lid of the first cleaner. It is best to work on a small area at a time, overlapping each area and working from top to bottom, not allowing the cleaner to dry on the wood. Scrub the base with a Scotch Brite pad or a soft bristle brush, the wood will turn a deep brown color. Rinse thoroughly, then apply the acid to the same area and scrub in the same fashion, the wood will then turn much lighter. Finally rinse the area thoroughly with water, the teak should appear obviously lighter and cleaner, if any stains remain repeat the process. The wood will lighten further as it dries.

Teak cleaner will remove teak oils, food stains, the residue of varnish, and teak sealer. Any solid surface coating like varnish must be removed before using two-part cleaner. Never use a brass brush or a pressure washer to clean teak, these methods will scour the soft grain of the wood causing a rough and splintery surface. Never use steel wool to clean teak because it will produce rust spots in the wood. Brass wool is acceptable but a Scotch Brite Pad is the best tool to clean teak.

Once the gray pigmentation and stains are gone and the furniture piece is dry, sanding any roughness of the grain can make the furniture seem just like new again.

Don’t be lured into purchasing that cutting edge, feature-laden lawn mower, advertised so suavely: diligently research your considerations prior to buying a garden mower. So before you start spending your hard-earned cash on one, be certain you know what you’re looking for and exactly what you need.

Lawn mowers come in a wide range of sizes, sorts, and costs and do require a bit of careful research before purchasing one, for fear that you purchase a model not tailored to your needs or with the present lawn or garden backdrop, and they are an investment – so be careful.

 Specifications such as the contour and measurement of your lawn, what you can afford, how long your mower is envisioned to last and possibly your personal mechanical knowledge should be considered before purchase.

Start by taking a careful look at the lawn.You may already have a decent inclination of what will work for you, through previous toil in your garden. If you have recently purchased a home, you must have an idea on the square feet of lawn space you have. Such information is critical - recommendations for a particular lawn mower are somewhat based on lawn volume calculated in sq ft.

Take a trip round your lawn, in order to ascertain whether the terrain is smooth – some mowers are more versatile than others when it comes to terrain - while looking for shaded areas (which are often drenched). Also check to confirm whether you have trees with surface roots appearing on the ground in addition to other obstructions such as large stones, patches of rocky ground, etc. Fixtures such as planting boxes, shrubs, terraces, walls or other barriers that can make movement a tad tedious also must be deliberated and so does the issue that comes from mowing on a sloped area.

Also in need of consideration is whether you enjoy working in a garden - you need to feel comfortable getting your hands filthy as you care for the mower. You wil often have to wipe off grass clippings stuck to the metal or the coloured sections of your lawn mower. Then of course there’s getting down on your knees to remove the blade and sharpen and balance it. A high end lawn mower will survive for years if it’s kept up correctly, although a badly looked after one won’t last too long.

Finally, you need assess is your finances because the right mower might be an expensive but worthwhile investment, as suggested above.

 Those are just some of the elementary questions you first need to consider before buying that mower. Donot get to spend money on a mower which might simply provide a home for cobwebs in your garage or supply closet!

www.patiogear.co.uk has a range of lawn mowers available, suitable for many different types of garden, and at great prices too!

You may have noticed that, whilst looking on www.patiogear.co.uk (and www.alfresia.co.uk too) that all of our timber products are constructed from FSC Certified Timber, and has usually been pressure treated. But what do these terms actually mean?

FSC is an acronym for the Forest Stewardship Council. In many forests across the globe, destructive logging and deforestation techniques result in habitat destruction, pollution in the water and air, the displacement of indigenous population and aggression directed at the people and animals of the forest.

A growing number of companies are rejecting the idea that this is the only way to source timber and believe instead that forests can be managed and yet protected simultaneously. By certifying wood with their stamp, the FSC lets consumers and companies know which timber has been taken in an ethical manner. If all logging moved in such a way, through consumer pressure, we would preserve enormous areas of this vital resource for future generations.

The FSC has a list of 10 principles that must be met by companies who want this certification:

1. That the forest management in question complies with all local, national and international laws to which the country with the forest has signed up to.
2. Long term rights and tenure to land must be well documented and legally obtained.
3. The legal rights of indigenous peoples to the lands for living or gathering resources must be respected and given precedence.
4. Operations shall endeavour to maintain or enhance the long term social and economic wellbeing of both workers and forest dwellers.
5. Operations shall encourage the efficient use of the forest’s multiple products and services to ensure economic viability and a wide range of environmental and social benefits.
6. Management must maintain the biodiversity of the forest and protect and respect its associated resources.
7. A management plan — appropriate to the scale and intensity of the operations — shall be written, implemented, and kept up to date.
8. Appropriate to the scale and intensity of forest management, monitoring to assess all aspects listed above and any further effects to the forest.
9. Management activities in high conservation value forests shall maintain or enhance the attributes which define such forests.
10. Plantations shall be planned and managed in accordance with Principles and Criteria 1 – 9, and they should complement the management of, reduce pressures on, and promote the restoration and conservation of natural forests.

Alfresia is proud to only use products made from FSC Certified timber.

What is pressure treatment?

Pressure treating is a process by which chemical preservatives are forced deep into the timber. As an aside to its preservative benefits, this process makes the wood unappealing to vermin, insects and fungus, accounting for its 20+ year lifespan under even the harshest conditions. A preservative coating should be applied, however, to prevent slight weathering.

When working with pressure treated wood, remember that it does have a chemical inside and exercise these cautions:

• Wear a mask when cutting – the sawdust can be an irritant to nose/eyes/mouth.
• Try to collect sawdust for disposal – put a tarp down over the whole area.
• Do not burn this wood. Give it to professionals.
• Under no circumstance use this wood for surfaces that will come into contact with food.
• Only use outdoors.

www.patiogear.co.uk has a great range of grills and accessories from buschbeck. Described as “the ultimate in outdoor cooking”, the range of Buschbeck grills are designed to evoke the mediterranean, both in atmosphere and taste – this range of grills is a representation of a very common mediterranean way of cooking.

Whilst the grills differ in colour, they all have similar design features:

• Their double-skinned construction means that the grills can use several types of fuel – charcoal, logs, firewood etc.
• They function as both grills and outdoor heaters – you can cook and then sit around them on cooling nights.
• Three adjustable cooking heights and a heavy duty chrome grill ensure plenty of space to grill on for even the hungriest of gatherings.
• Buschbeck is the only brand of masonry barbecue to achieve the very stringent German TUV/GS safety standard.
• They have great life expectancy – in Europe where Buschbeck barbecues are widely distributed it is not unusual to see ones that are in excess of 20 years old!
• As far as maintenance goes there is little or nothing to do. If the barbecue’s appearance becomes at little too weathered for you, simply use a jet wash to clean it down!