I learned to garden as an adult by poring over gardening magazines and watching shows on HGTV, like “Gardening by the Yard.” Remember that one? Sadly, none of the instructional and inspirational shows that taught me to garden are still on the air, since HGTV replaced them with shows about outdoor decorating. Furniture, fabric and fireplaces galore, but not much that grows.

A few regional gardening shows are still aired on public television, but for most of the U.S., there’s nothing for people who learn best by watching, like I do. And what’s more visual than gardening, anyway? It’s even more visual than cooking, which is all over television.

Lucky for people wanting to learn to garden, now there’s Youtube, the number two search engine (after Google) and number one source of how-to instruction, whether it’s cooking, setting up your new Fitbit, or gardening.

Which is great, but have you ever looked for gardening help on Youtube only to find conflicting information or really bad advice? I sure have. Or I’ve found how-to advice from someone somewhere in England, where I’m unfamiliar with the climate and don’t know how to adjust the advice for where I garden. (Videos of Alan Titschmash pop up often in search results but what are his growing conditions? I haven’t a clue.)

So I started a project called Good Gardening Videos to find and promote good videos, the ones that can be trusted to teach viewers to succeed at gardening (by providing information that’s accurate) and are watchable (no shaky cameras or traffic noise, please).

To help with this nonprofit project I asked a bunch of smart garden communicators and scientists for their advice and am proud that they include GGW’s own Fran Sorin, along with two members of the famous Garden Professors bloggers and a few more actual experts. We are all unpaid except for horticulturist Charlie Nardozzi, whom we’ve recently hired to curate videos about growing edibles, a subject about which I know literally nothing.

The almost 600 good videos selected so far were made by 18 state Extension universities and a variety of garden communicators, like GGW’s very own Debra Lee Baldwin. (We’ve chosen six of her videos to feature so far.) Some of the plant world’s most reputable companies are also making instructional videos, and we’re happy to promote the best of them, as long as they’re truly instructional, not infomercials.

So how do we provide useful information for gardeners across the drastically different growing regions in the U.S. and Canada, our target audience? By prominently revealing each expert’s location, no matter how difficult it was to find that bit of vital information, and letting viewers make any necessary adjustments for where they garden.

You can find our curated videos on the website or the Youtube channel by searching or browsing the topics. And to help people find the videos they need when they need them, we’re creating Seasonal Guides, collections of the best videos on such timely topics as lawn care, seed-starting and bulb-planting.

Admittedly, you can’t learn everything from videos, so we’ve compiled a list of websites and books we find ourselves recommending over and over – in “How to Find More Accurate Gardening Information.” That includes how to find research-based information using good old Google.

GGVideos is pro-science, pro-environment, ad-free and nonprofit.

How to Video Your Own Garden

It didn’t take long to discover that more good gardening videos are needed! To help gardeners share their gardens, their plant collections or their make-over projects, our website includes tips on “How to Make Videos Yourself.” One take-away is that making a good-enough video is easier than you think – especially if you compile still photos into a slide show with captions or your own narration. No budget for videos? There are free editing programs, and good-enough videos can be made with point-and-shoot cameras or even smart phones. You can click on this guide to video marketing to help you get started on promoting as well if you’re a business owner.

We’re also nudging gardening companies, public gardens and anyone who’ll listen to make more good gardening videos. In the 21^st Century, video marketing is widely recommended because it’s very effective.

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Guest Post Author Bio:

Susan Harris pursued her passion for helping people succeed as gardeners through writing and garden-coaching before her recent retirement. Online, she co-founded and contributes to the team blog GardenRant and promotes public gardens and gardening in the Washington, D.C. area at DC Gardens.

 

The post appeared first on Gardening Gone Wild

If you’re considering building your own fence, you’ve probably done research to determine what type of fence you want, how to prepare your yard, and what tools you will need. There is one seemingly minor, yet important question that you may still need to research, though – whether to use individual fence pickets or purchase pre-made fence panels.

Already know you want to buy pre-made fence panels? Check out these wood, vinyl, and aluminum fence options.

Using individual fence pickets

Many people picture building a fence piece-by-piece when visualizing fence construction. Someone with expert-level carpentry skills (and perhaps a heavily-wooded lot with access to high-quality trees) may even be able to saw, cut, plane, and sand their own fence pickets. More commonly, you can purchase individual wooden fence pickets wholesale or from a fence manufacturer to build your own fence.

While buying individual fence pickets may seem like a great idea when it comes to saving money and better customizing your fence, building your own fence panels out of pickets takes a lot of time and effort. You will need to build the fence rails, fit them to your fence posts, and nail each individual board to the rails, while ensuring they are straight and consistent in color, shape and character. Fence panels come pre-assembled, but you will need to make sure they are installed level, and possibly cut some panels for length.

Wood fence pickets are the most common type of fence product that is sold individually, although some vinyl fence pickets may be found. Vinyl pickets can be trickier for the home DIYer to install, though, and are usually much easier to install when sold and shipped in panels..

You can work with a reputable fence company to custom-design a fence if you are looking for a very unique design. If you choose this option, your fence will typically come in panel-form, not as individual pickets.  (Shop Picket Fences)

Using pre-made fence panels

Pre-manufactured fence panels come in multiple widths, heights, and styles. The most common width is eight feet, and common heights for security and privacy fences include six feet and eight feet, although smaller, decorative fences and more open, semi-private fences exist in three or four foot heights.

One major advantage of using pre-made fence panels is time. Rather than laboriously constructing each fence panel yourself, you have the benefit of skipping that time-consuming step and moving right on to setting and installing the panels themselves. This means your DIY fence installation can take only one weekend to complete, including fence preparation, rather than multiple weeks. Have your yard ready for spring and summer more quickly!

A second advantage of using pre-manufactured panels is quality. While you can choose a fence manufacturer that finishes and inspects each fence panel by hand, an industrial sawmill and wood shop will be able to more quickly manufacture pickets and form them into panels with no question of quality or conformity. The quality control process in fence manufacturing, even local, hand-finished manufacturing, will ensure a uniform product throughout not just each panel, but the entire fence.

Here are some pre-made fence panels you can buy online:

• 4′ High Contemporary 2″ Spaced Picket Panel  – White Cedar Wood
• 6′ High Privacy Panel – 1×4 Boards – Dog Eared Picket Tops – White Cedar
• ActiveYards 6′ Arrowwood Haven Series Section Kit – White Vinyl
• ActiveYards 6′ Dogwood Haven Series Section Kit – Vinyl – Sand

Preparation for picket or panels

When preparing to install a fence, many steps remain the same, whether you are choosing to use individual pickets or pre-made panels.

• First, you need to measure for your fence. Be sure to check your survey for property line information when placing your fence. Mark where you will be placing fence posts. Using a string, run a plumb line around the perimeter
• Next, you need to dig holes for your fence posts. These will be filled with concrete to level and support your posts, and therefore your fence. They should be larger than the posts that will be inserted for that reason. Make sure they are between 24 and 36 inches deep.
• Third, level and fill your posts and post holes. Using your plumb line, make sure each fence post is the same height and that they all line up appropriately. Then, fill your post holes with concrete to hold them.

Now you’re ready to install your fence panels! If you are installing individual pickets, you will first have to attach fence rails to your posts. Wood panel fences can be nailed directly to your fence posts. Wood, vinyl, or aluminum rail fences have special notches in the posts to attach rails, and are then screwed in for security and longevity. Vinyl panel fences come with special locking tabs that will securely click to the post.

The Fence Authority’s Fence Panel Manufacturing Process

The Fence Authority sources all wood from Canadian white or red cedar. We make our own fence pickets and panels at our three wood fabrication shops in West Chester, PA, Montgomeryville, PA, and Smyrna, DE. We finish each piece by hand, ensuring quality of materials. We also have a state-of-the-art vinyl fabrication shop in West Chester and are the exclusive dealer of ActiveYards quality vinyl and aluminum fences in southeastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.

We can work with you directly to determine the perfect fence for you. Just contact our Outdoor Living Experts! We offer a five year workmanship warranty on all of our fence installations. If you prefer to install your own fence, that’s great! We can provide you with the fence materials you need in wood, vinyl, or aluminum to create your perfect fence DIY project.

Our online fence shop features our 20 most popular styles of fences. You can pick up your fence parts at one of our locations or have it delivered to your door.

The post Should I buy individual fence pickets or pre-made fence panels? appeared first on The Fence Authority Blog.