Nice concrete counter topped outdoor kitchen

First, let me explain that in commonly accepted terms, an outdoor kitchen is simply a kitchen that is in an outdoor unconditioned air space and is often subject to variances in atmospheric conditions and weather that could be detrimental to a normal kitchen design. An outdoor kitchen may or may not have a roof but is always open to outside air on at least one or more major sides. Outdoor kitchens, by their very nature, require specialized appliances and cabinets designed and tested for outdoor conditions. Additionally, there is a clear difference between an outdoor kitchen and an outdoor bar. The main difference is a stove, range, cook top or barbeque grill. Both an outdoor bar and a kitchen can have a sink and refrigerator but only a kitchen has a cooking surface. So in simple terms, as soon as a stove is added to an outdoor bar, it becomes an outdoor kitchen…at least that is how many of us as designers define them.

http://amenityarchitects.com/outdoor-kitchen-components-and-design-advice

If you are considering building a custom kitchen with a high quality stainless grill and cant find them at your home store…which you cant: Try one of these…

For a small grill suitable for small family gatherings try a 24″ natural gas grill by AOG.

AOG American Outdoor Grill 24 Inch Built-in Natural Gas Grill

The matching cover is

AOG American Outdoor Grill Cover For 24 Inch Built-in Gas Grill

So you have an ugly ditch in your yard that you just know could look so much better. Perhaps you have seen a dry creek bed in someone else’s landscape. Or maybe you saw a stream bed in a book you liked. Well, it’s really fairly easy to do, so let’s talk about how you might go about it.

see this link http://amenityarchitects.com/turning-your-drainage-ditch-into-a-beautiful-dry-stream-bed

Dry Creek Bed at ISS

Late fall is typically the time of year when many people are raking leaves and putting bags of leaves along the curb. In my opinion, this is an extremely counter productive effort. With every bag of leaves that we place on the curb we are generating waste that must go to a land fill and we are removing nature’s natural slow release nitrogen replacement system from our yards.  To me, it is a logical conclusion to see that for hundreds of thousands of years before humans mowed lawns and raked leaves, our landscape fertilized itself and grew healthy, sustainable, organic soil with no need for added nitrogen rich synthesized chemicals.

Each year the trees would shed their crop of leaves and the following winter these leaves, through a process called decomposition, would begin the cycle of breaking down into elements that make up our soils.  This process provided organic materials, micro-organisms, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. It also provided a growing medium that held moisture better and protected the layer of roots that lies mostly in the top 6″of soil.

Today we rake way all these leaves and we bag our grass clippings. Doing this year after year depletes the soil of all the elements and natural organisms that make soil healthy. To add to that, our constant applications of pesticides also kill important symbiotic bacteria and fungi that are required to make our trees and shrubs healthy. After a few years of these practices our lawns require annual fertilizer in order to be productive and support turf grasses.

Worse that that, we pay several dollars for bags, we work harder than necessary to bag our leaves, wasting valuable time, and we utilize labor, fuel and equipment in order to transport the leaves to a land fill. Finally, we give up valuable land assets to construct landfills that fill up far to fast. All these things are completely unnecessary if you live in yard with a any more than 1/4 or an acre of land.

Those of us who live in a yard of approximately a quarter acre or more can easily accommodate composting in our yards. The simplest of these methods include grass-cycling. Grass-cycling is the simple practice of mulching your grass clippings with a recycling style lawn mower. Many lawn mowers have special blades for this purpose. The blade chops the grass into fine particles which are simply left on the yard. After mowing sometimes you have to rake or blow clumps to spread them over a larger area and make the lawn look better. However, if you have a fine textured lawn or are extremely particular about your lawn’s looks you may want to simply bag your grass clippings and dump them in a compost bin. After they compost for a year the resulting soil/compost can be spread under shrubs, around trees and raked into the turf areas before a rain is expected.

The same thing can be done with your leaves. Instead of back breaking work to bag all the leaves, simply rake them under shurbs, around trees and into compost piles. To get them to a central location rake them into large piles on tarps (tarpaulins) and drag them to a compost area. This is a tried and true method used by commercial landscape companies. The leaves can then be mixed with grass clippings and composted for a year before being spread in the landscape.

A great tip is to shred your leaves with a mower. After raking them in piles, simply push your mower into the pile (slowly and carefully) by raising the deck’s front wheels (by pushing down on the handle) and then slowly letting up till the blades drop into the leaf pile. The resulting shredded leaves are less likely to blow around in the wind and will also breakdown much faster.

Another tip is to wet the leaves down after raking them and repeating weekly, this will keep them from blowing around in strong winter winds and start the decomposition process faster.

Finally a tip is to keep the depth of any mulch spread under trees and shrubs from becoming too thick. A layer of three to six inches is best. When mulch gets to be eight inches or more it can become too hot and be a detriment to the roots and beneficial organisms.

Best of luck with your composting and mulching.

Sean Murphy

I love these products:

If you want to get started in home coposting and make sure you do it right try one of these books.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Composting

How to Make and Use Compost:

This is a great small compactor suitable for kitchen waste but not a lot of yard debris.

Achla CMP05B Spinning Horizontal Composter

If you want a composter for yard debris try this one.

Bosmere K771 Country Wood Composter

Two more weeks