Southern Homes & Gardens Blog

Mark your calendars for this Thursday February 26th - Saturday February 28th….it’s a shopping extravaganza exclusively for Garden Rewards members!  Save 20% off your ENTIRE* purchase - and better yet, earn DOUBLE POINTS those three special days only! 

Not a Garden Rewards Member?  No worries, stop in either store location during the event & sign up…and you can take advantage of the double points & special discount too!  Signing up is fast, easy & FREE!  We are all about saving you money with our great store values and low prices every day, but wouldn’t it be nice to be rewarded for shopping smart?  Now you can with our Garden Rewards program!  Each time you shop & purchase items, you accrue points…and at the end of each calendar year, we tally up those points & send you Reward dollars to spend right back here at your favorite store.  Here are some other GREAT benefits of the Garden Rewards program:

• Discounts on selected items throughout the Home Store & Garden Center
• Savings on new or exclusive introductions
• Earn points with every purchase
• Inspirations magazine subscription for active** members
• FREE local delivery on purchases over $1,000***
• Lost key program
• No annual membership fee!

*No other coupons or discounts may be applied in addition to the special discount.  Special Rewards discount does not apply towards purchases of Textraw, pinestraw, synthetic mulch or The Gardens Cafe.  Other exclusions may apply, see store for details.

**Active members are those who have earned fifty (50) points or more in the preceeding year

***Excludes deliveries of wood furniture, fountains & statuaries

We can’t wait to see you February 26th, 27th and 28th!

That’s right….we’re giving away a FREE patio set during our 2009 Southern Favorites Home & Garden show!  Register to win this beautiful white all-weather woven resin wicker set during our Home & Garden show this weekend!  Not only are we giving away a patio set, but you can also register to win an array of GREAT door prizes too! 

It’s a beautiful day to come out to the show & receive FREE consultations with our Southern Homes & Gardens Landscape Designers, visit with our guest vendors, wander through our Design & Inspirations Garden, attend FREE seminars (schedule below) and take advantage of our greatest values ever! 

FREE Seminars - Sat. February 21st - Vaughn Rd location only:

9am - “Dealing with Dirt”  by Dr. Charles Mitchell, Agronomist & Soils Professor, Auburn University

10am - “Roses” by Tom Seibert of Weeks Roses

11am - “Organic Gardening” by Bonnie Satterthwaite, The Espoma Company

FREE Seminar at Wetumpka Hwy location TODAY:

1:30pm - “Roses” by Tom Seibert of Weeks Roses

Don’t forget about our NEW Garden Rewards program either….it’s fast, easy & FREE to sign-up and you can start your savings immediately.  Every purchase you make, you accrue points that will turn into bonus dollars to spend at the end of each calendar year…to find out more, just ask our associates at either store location, they’ll be happy to help!

In case you haven’t heard (or seen!) about our upcoming Home & Garden show this weekend, check out the commercial below:

shg-home-garden-show-this-weekend

2009 Southern Favorites Home & Garden Show

Friday-Sunday, February 20th-22nd

Vaughn Rd location only.  Show specials good at both locations.

More than ever, folks are turning their outdoor spaces into tranquility gardens & spa-like retreats instead of splurging on one.  So, what is one element that can help you achieve that zen-like feeling?  Sound, of course!  Fountains, offering the soothing sound of moving water, have long been popular in gardens.  We carry a wonderful selection of stone & fiberglass fountains - we can certainly help you select a fountain that meets & exceeds your needs for your sound garden.  Just ask our experts!

Windchimes often evoke an etheral feeling of weightlessness & soothe even the most rigid of days.  Regardless of the type of wind chime, the result is the same:  an irresistable invitations just to relax.

The Elements of Sound

The sounds of most wind chimes are meant to inspire tranquility, but nothing compares to the melody of a finely tuned wind chime. Three basic factors figure into the tuned-chime experience.  The first is musical scale.  A musical scale is a set of intervals - an interval is the difference in pitch between any two notes.  Pitch is the ‘highness’ or ‘lowness’ of the note.  A tuned windchime is one consisting of a particular set of intervals.  So a tuned chime is the opposite of a random set of notes or indeed a collection of random lenghts of tubing.  Musical scales vary richly throughout the world.  Every culture has a least one characteristic musical scale, just as it has its own language. 

The second of three factors is pitch.  The larger the musical instrument is, the deeper the register in which it plays.  One can produce musical scales in different pitches by making chimes in different sizes, which of course, equates to different prices as well.  The larger a chime is, the more material it must have, so the more it costs.  Most people prefer the lowest pitch range they can afford.  Why is that?  There is something profoundly tranquil abotu the lower registers.  Just try to imagine Barry White’s voice in Madonna’s pitch range - it just wouldn’t be the same.

The third factor is sustain.  Sustain is the that audible hum that you continue to hear after the initial note.  One of the main elements that dictate hum is mass.  It’s simple physics.  The greater the mass, the longer the vibration will continue after the strike.  Chimes that are bigger obviously have more mass, and thus sustain longer.  So chime size dictates not only pitch, but also sustain.  Sustain is important to  most listeners; they find an elongated sustain very calming.  This effect is probably why meditation frequently involves a hum.

A Finely Tuned Ensemble

Chimes come in a variety o fmusical scales and voices designed to compliment each other.  A group of compatible chimes hung in proximity are often called an ‘ensemble’.  Proximity doesn’t mean right next to one another.  It only means that if they were both playing, one would be within range of the other.  They can be on each side of a porch, different branches on the same tree, different trees in teh same yard, one in the backyard, and one in the next-door neighbor’s backyard.

Here at SH&G we have a great selection of windchimes - most notably, our Corinthian Bells.

Varying in price, these Corinthian Bells chimes are a wonderfully peaceful addition to any outdoor living space - for yourself or as a gift! 

Russell Brown, General Manager

February is here & that means a new list of plant-care musts!

• Prune fruit trees prior to new growth starting.
• Don’t forget your sweetheart for Valentines Day, roses are always a favorite but blooming azaleas, hydrangeas and tulips are also beautiful.
• Apply first application of crabgrass preventer to control grassy weeds in all types of lawns.
• Now is the time to prune Roses, Ornamental Grasses and other Deciduous Shrubs.
• Fertilize pansies
• Apply lime and well-rotted manure as needed to vegetable beds.
• All trees can be pruned when dormant, if needed.
• Prune crape myrtles.
• Cut back liriope.
• Remember to feed the birds.
• You will get more out of many dormant plants like shade trees, fruit trees, shrubs, roses and vines by planting them now before they bud out.  This gives them time before spring to become established in their new home. 
• Now is the time to begin preparing your plants for new spring growth.  Begin by pruning away all the diseased or dead leaves.
• Your perennials, trees and shrubs are beginning to awake and are hungry.  Feed them with a balanced slow release fertilizer or for an organic solution use Espomas Plant-Tone.  Fertilize from the drip line of the plants.  This is the vertical line from the edge of outer most branches.
• Now is the time to prune the canes of your hydrangeas that are not showing signs of growth.  After pruning, fertilize your blue hydrangea with aluminum sulfate and your pink hydrangeas with garden lime.

Russell Brown, General Manager - Southern Homes & Gardens