Sound off: How best to extend the life and usefulness of outdoor living spaces – Thehour.com

Sound off: How best to extend the life and usefulness of outdoor living spaces

With autumn at hand and an eye on the pandemic, you may be more than ready to enhance and extend the life and usefulness of your outdoor space.

Installing, expanding or sprucing up a patio or deck, or adding an outdoor fireplace, gazebo or pergola can contribute to home value. Changing the cushions on outdoor furniture, or having garden furniture restored can refresh the spirit, as well as the seasonal ambiance.

Heat lamps and solar in-ground lights are welcoming add-ons, while landscaping or focal-point nighttime illumination could turn a property into a wonderland in any season.

To bring the outside in, consider adding the sunroom or four-season solarium youve been dreaming about, or maybe put in sliders where theres now only a door. For youngsters, a treat could be a jungle gym, playhouse or treehouse or all three. Hang some bird feeders to captivate kids and adults, as well as the birds.

If you have a level area in your yard, explore the do-it-yourself route or kits for making ice-skating rinks. Or build low stone-wall seating around a fire pit, for comfort and character while roasting marshmallows.

Garden centers and nurseries can provide solutions for your outdoor living spaces. Fall is the time for planting colorful springtime gardens. Cool-season veggies, such as lettuce, kale, beets and spinach planted now can yield a third-season harvest. At McArdles Florist and Garden Center and around the world, edible gardening is hot. Flowers that attract butterflies can teach kids the joy of gardening. Butterfly bushes, coneflowers and phlox are among pollinators whose flat petals serve as landing pads for butterflies and bees, needed for cross pollination. No bees? No zucchini, according to Mary Jo Bridge Palmer of Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses.

You may also want to deer-proof gardens. A good way to start, according to Bridge Palmer, is to install four-foot post-and-wire fence, a size that deer tend not to jump. A smaller foot-high fence outside of the taller fence can outwit rabbits and woodchucks.

If your outdoor space is sparse, container gardening may be your enhancement ticket to homegrown tomatoes, potatoes, herbs and flowers. For balconies and spaces in want of privacy, planters with tall supports for flowering vines can create splendid screens.

Business: William Raveis Real Estate,

203-869-9263 office,

914-980-7031 cell,

marguerite.vauclair@raveis.com

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Sound off: How best to extend the life and usefulness of outdoor living spaces - Thehour.com