Hilton Head Monthly Magazine Voice of the Lowcountry Thanksgiving Day is a holiday rich in its traditions: turkey, pumpkin pie, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and football.
Many families have the tradition of gathering around the dinner table or in the living room and makes a “gratitude circle.” Each friend or family member has to say what they’re most thankful for this past year.
Here are a few new ways to carry on the same spirit of this tradition, but with a little more flare.
What a refreshing idea! It is well known that gardens thrive in the spring and early summer, but what happens or can be expected in the fall in a Lowcountry garden? Those and related questions will be answered on Oct. 17 when the Lowcountry Master Gardener Association presents its second annual educational garden tour. The emphasis is on education and even the most experienced gardener can learn something.
Experts weigh in on the perfect culinary setting
It’s no secret that the heart of every home is the kitchen. After all, it’s where holiday meals are cooked, school lunches are made and parties tend to linger.
Staging the home for potential buyers may take a professional...
Kelly Hughes sees it all the time.
A couple tours a potential new home, excited about the breakfast nook where they can picture themselves sipping coffee while reading the newspaper and then are simply giddy about the extra storage provided by the two-car garage. But when they walk into the living room and see the loud paint on the walls, their dream home suddenly becomes a fixer-upper.
Yes, the summer garden is history. It had more than a few moments of glory and at the same time, some disappointments. But the overall learning experience was valuable.
So in the interest of onward and upward in the garden, following are impressions of the winners, the losers, the ho-hum and the “teaching moment.”
First, the good news. Clear winners in the summer garden for long-lasting bloom, color, ease of culture and apparent indifference to our weather extremes were pentas, angelonia, torenia, scaevola, melampodium, coleus and caladiums. In the shrub category, hydrangeas are included.
All of these annuals performed beautifully all summer, blooming well through August. Salvia Victoria could be added to the list, although there is an extended period of non-bloom after cutting back the first vigorous flush, which was long-lasting and magnificent. Cannas were also reliable in that they will re-bloom several times just when you think they are finished. Journey’s End, Panache and Australia are in this category, as are others. All of them created a colorful focus in the summer garden.
As Jane Austen might phrase it, a summer garden must be full of butterflies to be complete. If only all desires could be so easily achieved, because there is scarcely a garden in the Lowcountry that does not already grow one or all three of the major butterfl y magnets: lantana, pentas and salvia.
Add coneflower, verbena, coreopsis, rudbeckia, butterfly bush and honeysuckle, (the Lonicera sempervirens variety), and a water source, and they will come.
The year-round warm and often humid weather, the sprawling live oaks with Spanish moss and surrounding fresh and salt waters that make the Lowcountry famous also provide the perfect setting for pests that threaten homes — from palmetto bugs and termites to mold and lawn fungus. Lowcountry homeowners must keep a watchful eye out for the unique problems that can affect all aspects of the home: lawns, foundation, siding, roofs and more. Here’s a peek at some of the typical home improvement issues affecting the lower part of the Palmetto State.
From Frederick Law Olmsted’s manicured lawns to Alice Waters’ organic vegetable patch, the perfect American yard is constantly evolving. But, when it comes to entertaining, there is little doubt that the kitchen is the heart of a home. Why not merge the two and take your culinary adventures outside?
Advances in durable kitchen products coupled with inventive designs mean outdoor kitchens can be customized to fit individual preferences while being as functional as a cook’s most indispensible gadget. Imagine a pizza oven for your patio, or a bar that’ll let you mix martinis while watching a king-fisher at the end of the dock. But before you toss out your trusty charcoal kettle and rush into a sprawling outdoor cook station, here are some things to think about when planning your outdoor kitchen.
Have you been feeling a little cramped in your kitchen, but you don’t have the finances to knock down walls or build more storage space? Don’t worry. With a few simple changes, you will discover new space that you never knew existed.
The first task is to look inside your cabinets. If there are mugs, water bottles or plastic cups that seem to never be used, donate them. For Tupperware containers, pots and pans, stack them inside each other.
Have you been thinking about redecorating your child’s bathroom? If so, here are some easy ways to make the bathroom attractive, safe, clean – and entertaining.
When it comes to decorating the walls, paint them in one or two of your child’s favorite colors. This will make redecorating easy if your kids grow out of the original design or if you want to redecorate when they move out of the house.
Paint the walls in washable flat paint or exterior latex. That way the walls can be washed with bleach or antibacterial cleaning products without paint pealing.
