When you’re a resident of a part of the country that witnesses climatic changes with the seasons, you’ll want to know about how getting a patio awning can improve your way of life. If you and your family spend the winters yearning for spring, you know how drastically the weather impacts your life. Everyone loves the sun and the summer time, but sometimes things can get too hot.

Patio awnings can protect your home from the harsh elements as well as provide a great benefit during the months you enjoy the outdoors. Harsh UV rays from the sun can damage your skin during the spring and summer months. You may feel torn because it’s simply too nice outside to be indoors. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to enjoy the outdoors safely? With a patio awning, you can have the best of both worlds.

Here’s how a patio awning can protect you and your home, no matter what season it is. During the frigid winter months, your patio awning, when drawn down, can keep in heat. You’ll notice an improvement in your heating costs when you install a patio awning on your home.

Thinking about adding an awning to your patio? There are a few things you need to consider first before making the decision. Although not a major purchase, when committing yourself to any type of addition, you should look at the possibilities. Patio awnings come in several different types. Take a look at some of the choices.

Adding a patio awning is one of the most inexpensive ways to improve your enjoyment of the outdoors, while staying at home. Extending a cover over your barbecue, or lawn furniture, with the convenience of not having to worry about how the weather is going to affect your time with family and friends. All this is done without worry of huge building costs, wait times, and the mess of any type of construction, for a more permanent addition.

Depending on what type of awning you choose, the material used in these are usually coated with some type of anti-mildew treatment or Teflon, used to increase the life of the attachment longer. Some of the lower-quality ones are made out of plastic, but these are not used as often as they need to be replaced more frequently due to weather conditions.

The cloves of commerce are the dried unopened flower buds of an evergreen tree, Syzygium aromaticum (syn. Eugenia caryophyllus), belonging to the family Myrtaceae. The plant is indigenous to the Moluccas.

The Dutch, using repugnant, oppressive and often bloody measures, were to retain the monopoly for nearly another 200 years. By 1651 the Dutch had instituted a scheme limiting the cultivation of cloves to the island of Amboina, insisting on the uprooting of cloves on the other islands. The penalty for the possession, selling and cultivation of cloves except on Amboina was death.

The orders were particularly cruel, as it was the custom in the Moluccas for the indigenous people to plant a clove tree for the birth of each child, which helped to keep a record of the child’s age; if the tree was subsequently destroyed it portended doom for the child. The Dutch aimed to create an artificial scarcity and maintained prices by destroying surplus cloves which came onto the market. They made Batavia (Djakarta) the entrepot for cloves. Rutnphius (1626-1702) gives a very accurate account of the clove tree and method of production in his Herbarium Amboinense.

In Zanzibar the flowers are produced in two seasons, the first or mwaka crop from July to September and the second crop from November to January. Bud initials appear about six months before the buds are ready to harvest. The developing buds pass through well- marked changes in structure and appearance, of which six stages with local names are recognized in Zanzibar. It is thus possible to make a reasonable estimate of the crop some time before it is actually harvested. A profuse flowering, leading to a bumper crop, occurs only about once in every four years in Zanzibar. Under certain conditions the young buds may develop into leaves.

The inflorescence is a terminal, corymbose, trichotomous panicle, shortly pedunculate and branched from the base, shorter than the leaves, and very variable in the number of flowers, from 3 flowers on a simple three-forked peduncle to as many as 50 or more when conditions have favoured the triple subdivisions of the peduncle. The angled peduncles and shorter pedicels, about 5 mm long, constitute the clove stems of commerce. The bracts and bracteoles are narrow, acute, 2-3 mm long, and quickly falling. The flower is hermaphrodite with a fleshy hypanthium which is surmounted by the sepals.

Quoting Abraham, he says that under intense shade conditions the bisexual types produce more female flowers and less hermaphrodite flowers.

`Bangka’, for which a synonym seems to be ‘Muntok’, resembles the Sarawak `Sarikei’ and was the main clone for the production of white pepper by the Chinese on the island of Bangka.`Phnom-Pon’ is a large-leaved cultivar in Kampuchea (Cambodia); `Kamchay’ is a small-leaved cultivar there.

Some crosses have been produced at the Pepper Research Station, Panniyur in Kerala, India, of which ‘Panniyur I’ shows promise. Some crosses have also been made in Sarawak. Most of the vines had died as a result of disease or old age.

Hermaphrodite pepper flowers are protogynous, the stigmas being exserted 3-8 days before the dehiscence of the anthers. In Puerto Rico, stigmas may be receptive for up to 10 days with peak receptivity 3 to 5 days after exsertion. Flowering begins at the base of the spike and continues towards the tip over a period of 7 to 8 days.

They have a larger percentage driage when made into black or white pepper. Cultivars which had the highest percentage of bisexual flowers gave the highest yields.

The sucking insects, thrips and aphides, are without doubt the worst enemies of all plants, not only dahlias. They live by sucking the sap from the plant, causing great damage through excessive loss of sap, and, in addition, are the vector insects responsible for the transmission of virus.

Parathion and T.E.P.P. are very dangerous to use, and II.E.T.P., although not so toxic, is likely to have unpleasant effects unless protective clothing is worn. A more recently introduced phosphor group insecticide, Malathion, is no more dangerous to use than either nicotine or lead-arsenate, and is extremely efficient.

Slugs and snails are also rather fond of the young dahlia plants, whether in the frame or in the garden, so it is as well to discourage these. Clean holes in the leaves are usually the tell-tale sign of slug attack, although the larger slugs and snails will chew complete leaves and even the growing points of the dahlia.

A member of the geranium family, Herb Robert is also unkindly called Stinky Robert. Not the most fragrant flower in Nature, it tends to lurk in rather dingy places – shaded spots in hedges, neglected gardens, waste places, and coastal thickets – in soil rich in organic matter.

Meat soaked in the same extract was used to poison wolves, and it is for this reason that the common names for Wolfsbane in many languages mean ‘wolf poison’.

Herb Robert has been of interest to folk-healers for centuries. Its flowering top parts contain the bitter principle geraniin, tannins, and essential oils.

The drug obtained from this plant has astringent properties as well as a binding and mildly diuretic action. In the old days pharmacists listed it under the name Rostrum ciconiae (Stork’s Bill), descriptive of the splitting fruit of geraniums.

Common St John’s Wort is a perennial herb with a branching rhizome and an erect stem. It takes its specific name peiforatum from the dark pellucid dots on the leaves resembling perforations. In actual fact these dots indicate the presence of translucent glands containing a bitter oil or of the dark glands which, when crushed between the fingers, release the red pigment (the so-called blood of St John).

Clitocybe nebularis is one of the sturdiest representatives of its genus. It is readily identified by its loudy whitish cap, whose surface has a slight ashp:ey bloom, and by its sharp aromatic distinctive men, reminiscent of soap. It grows gregariously in different types of woods and even outside them.

Clitocybe wbularis is edible but of a poor quality, though some mushroom-pickers collect it and add it to a mixture of other mushrooms or pickle it in vinegar. It is advisable to scald the sliced mushrooms be[bre proceeding further, otherwise they can cause indigestion.

Like Blewits, fresh fruit-bodies of Wood Blewits contain a substance which damages red blood- cells. However, it is neutralized by boiling and so thoroughly cooked mushrooms are not dangerous. Wood Blewits can be confused with some purple species of the Cortiwarivs genus. However, all of these are distinguished by their rust-brown spore powder, by the presence of the cobweb-like veil (cortina) and by their unpleasant smell.

A common feature of all Lactarius species is the presence of a milky latex in the flesh of its fruit- bodies, which trickles away when the mushroom is cut or broken. Its milky colour and the colour changes that take place when it is exposed to the air, as wsell as its taste, are the most important distinguishing features of the individual Lactarius species.

Laclarius volemus is a good edible mushroom, which grows predominantly in well-established pine forests. It can be safely eaten even in its raw state, which is an unusual feature of mushrooms. Its caps are a delicacy when salted, spiced with carraway seeds and fried in hot fat.

When preparing the mushroom in this way, the caps should be placed in the frying pan with the gills facing upwards. Lactarius volemus is also good for soups. It can, however, be mistaken for the very acrid Lactarius rufus, and it is wise to taste a small piece raw, in order to make sure that the flavour is mild.

The methods of maintaining records are numerous, the simplest being by entry in a lined diary, one or two lines being allowed to each variety or, if possible, to every plant, or to certain selected plants if a great number are grown.

Furthermore, it is almost possible, by quite simple preventive action, to ensure that none of the dahlia’s diseases will develop, much more easily that it would be to confer immunity on a human being. So, when reading, remember that it is intended only to show what may happen, not what will happen, to your dahlias. If the sole result is to make each and every dahlia grower diligent in his spraying and dusting routine.

The trouble is that really comprehensive records are tedious things to maintain, unless one is extremely enthusiastic, but even a comparatively simple record will be most useful.

Being capable of combining with substances within the cell sap, it must be fairly obvious that they can be transmitted quite quickly all over the plant, with the normal flow of sap. Usually the plant infected with virus will show aggressive leaf symptoms, but these may disappear later in the season, the plant apparently growing out of the disease. However it is probable, in fact almost certain, that the virus has spread throughout the plant, but is not active, and so does not cause leaf symptoms.