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So you’re in the mood to decorate your bedroom, but you’re on a limited budget…

AND you don’t have a headboard. And we all know that the bed is the major focal point of a bedroom. Your bed needs weight and drama… a headboard!

But if you don’t want to spend $1000 on a headboard, what do you do?

Well here are 6 very budget friendly ways to adding a headboard to your bed.

1. Place box cushions along the wall at the head of your bed. These are thick enough to hold there shape while adding a cushioned backdrop to your bed. Now you can lay in bed and read a book comfortably. You can make your box cushions out of foam and fabric or find some discount cushions to match your decor. Even old couch cushions covered in new fabric can work!

2. Hang a full-length mirror horizontally above your bed. This will give the feel of a headboard, reflect light in the room and help open up your space. You’ll be surprised at how great this looks!

3. Hang fabric down your wall. Quickly sew up some rod pocket curtains, or find some pre-made curtains and hang them from the ceiling down and behind your bed. This will add height, texture and drama to your bed. You can hang your fabric with a standard curtain rod or staple it to 1″ x 2″ board.

4. Hang framed art across the wall above your bed. Find images that complement your room’s color scheme and frame them in a rich wood tone or paint the frames to add a punch of color. Evenly space them on the wall above the head of your bed.

5. Make your headboard! This is easier than you think. Get some plywood at the height and width that you need. Glue a layer of foam to the board. Then cover the foam and board with batting, stapling it to the back of the board. And the cover the batting with your fabric, stapling it to the back of the board. Easy!

6. Hang shutters behind your bed. What a terrific country look, to reuse some old shutters or fencing and use it as a headboard!

With a little imagination you can come up with your own special headboard creation that will add much needed drama to your bedroom plus adding in your personality. Because what’s a bedroom without your personality shining through?

Happy Decorating!

Jennifer Thoden

Discover free home decorating ideas for all rooms of your home. Visit http://www.homedecoratingideas4u.com to enjoy free interior designer tips, home decorating ideas and dozens of interior decorating articles.

http://www.homedecoratingideas4u.com

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How do you create flower garden ideas? Let me count the ways.

Take garden tours. There is no substitute for actually seeing gardens in the flesh. I routinely take one or two tours every spring and summer just to see what I don’t like.

Read magazines. These dead-tree monthlies are full of pictures of great gardens. How else do you think they market their products ? I go to a bookstore and browse the racks. No, I don’t subscribe to any because (quite frankly) I get most of my raw information from the Net. But I do get some interesting design ideas from magazines.

Check out books. If you flip through pages of garden design books, (while you’re in the bookstore) you’re going to see tons of examples of great gardens. In fact, many of these gardens are unreal they are so perfect but you’ll get great ideas.

Let me quickly tell you that pictures in magazines and books are often “staged”. I mean that the magazines hire professional photographers and crews to “improve” the look of the garden. Extra flowers are brought in and tucked in to make the garden appear fuller. A bit of garden whimsy is added here - a potted plant is tucked there and suddenly.. what was a good garden becomes just a little more special in the eyes of the camera. For the next shot, flowers are moved, statuary adjusted and once again, the look of the garden changes. And you get a great looking garden magazine picture.

The internet is a tough place to find pictures of great looking gardens. I tend to write about individual plants (the how-to of plants) but am moving towards design items (I wrote a paper book on Perennial Garden Design) and incorporating more real pictures in my website. One of the practical problems of course is that most of our garden photography is on slides and it takes a lot of work to transfer these to digital images. But this is about getting you good flower garden ideas not about the problems of garden writers.

Sign up for my newsletter. You’ll find I routinely talk about design or about parts of design in abstract terms. I can’t solve your design problems but I do try to give ideas. Also sign up for my blog at http://doug-greens-gardening.blogspot.com/, you’ll find I talk more about garden design over there as I run into elements of light and space in my own gardens.

Doug Green award winning garden author has written 7 books and answers questions in his free gardening newsletter at http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/gardeningnewsletter.html.

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Evergreen trees and shrubs are generally more expensive than their counterparts, although many feel that they are well worth the extra expense not only for their year-round beauty, but also their reliability and longevity. Evergreens can range all the way from broadleaved shrubs like rhododendron to the tall pines and spruces that many people think of as simply “evergreens”.

Perhaps the most common of evergreen trees is the pine. It’s noted for its long, soft needles and its rapid growth. In fact, they often attain 60 to 80 ft. maturity very quickly.Red pine is popular as well and useful for creating textured backgrounds and windbreaks. The Ponderosa pine is a more compact tree that is often used for wind protection and ornamental purposes. The Austrian or black pine, with its spreading branches is very commonly used in the Midwest.

Perhaps the most widely planted evergreen that is used for a windbreak is the Norway spruce tree. It grows very fast, it’s very hardy, has short dark green needles, and is shaped like a pyramid. The Black Hills spruce tree is also very tough and resistant to drought. It grows much slower than the Norway spruce but can still achieve a height of 40 ft. in time.

White spruce on the other hand, can mature close to 60 to 70 ft. in height and is often used in landscaping designs. Colorado blue spruce is generally hardy, however it does suffer some in extreme heat and drought conditions.

Red Cedar is perhaps the most popular of the evergreen Cedar trees. It’s often used as an ornamental tree for both hedges and windbreaks. It tends to be very tough and hardy, and takes winter very well.

Perhaps the best overall Evergreen tree for windbreaks and screening is the Douglas fir tree. It’s hardy and drought resistant, grows fast, has a pyramid shape, and looks great in most landscape designs. The Balsam fir, which is also known as the Christmas tree, is well-known for its fragrance and unique appearance. On the other hand, the white fir tree has an attractive silver color instead.

The Juniper family of Evergreen trees is often used in planting, with the tall types such as the upright Juniper being used as a textured background, and the spreading types like the Pfitzer juniper being used for groundcover and edgings.

Yew, has thick glossy needles and upward reaching branches, and can be used as both a shrub and a tree. In fact, they can even grow well in sun and shade, making it one of the most versatile evergreens.

Evergreens as a whole can be adversely affected by hot, dry weather conditions and need to be watered every couple of weeks or so at this time. Be sure to water it enough so that the moisture will reach deep into the ground at least 6 in. or so. Applying a layer of mulch in dry weather can also help protect against moisture loss during this period.

It’s a good idea to prune evergreens in the late spring just before the new buds appear. And in the late fall give them a good deep watering to help prevent the branches drying out and cracking under the weight of snow or the force of wind during the winter.

As you can see, there are a lot of varieties of evergreen trees that accomplish many different tasks in a home landscaping design. Hopefully this article will help you choose the one that will work best for your home and help you care for it properly too.

Thad Pickering writes on many consumer related topics including home improvement. You can find free landscaping ideas and front yard landscaping ideas by visiting our Home Improvement website.

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