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DIY Outdoor Design Ideas To Transform Your Lawn

killingsworth-diy-outdoor-designs-to-upgrade-your-lawn

11 DIY Ideas To Upgrade Your Lawn

It’s the time of year again when homeowners decide to upgrade their backyards. From patios and pergolas, to string lights and fences, there are countless ways to transform your lawn on your own (and on a budget). To help you get your lawn summer-ready, keep reading! We’ve got 11 ideas to help you upgrade your lawn easily and quickly. With any luck, and a little hard work, your backyard will look brand new in no time! So roll up your sleeves and grab your toolkit—it’s time to get started!

1. Build A Deck Or Patio

A new patio or deck can be as easy, or as difficult, as you want it to be. If you’re extremely handy, consider pouring a concrete deck or patio. Concrete is extremely customizable, so you can pour it into almost any shape you’d like—no matter how big or small. However, concrete will take longer to cure, which will mean you may not have access to your new deck or patio as quickly as you’d like. If that’s the case, a wooden deck is another DIY option to consider. Once your deck or patio is complete and the wood is sealed, you can start decorating. Add outdoor furniture and a firepit and you’ve got yourself a quaint outdoor living space.

2. Create A Stone Path

If you have an area in your lawn you visit frequently like a garden or a play area for your kids, consider adding a stone path. The stepping stones will protect your lawn from frequent back-and-forth wear and tear, and add a unique element to help upgrade your lawn. Plus, you can purchase stepping stones at a relatively low price, or customize them with sayings, designs, patterns and more.

3. Construct An Outdoor Seating Area

There are various ways to add outdoor seating to upgrade your lawn. While you could purchase outdoor furniture for a deck or patio, you could also add a porch swing or build a tree bench. If your lawn has a large tree you enjoy, build a wooden tree bench. This is a simple DIY project that can add extra seating to your backyard while keeping you one with nature. Once your bench is complete, add decorative outdoor pillows to cozy up the space even more!

4. Add Shade With A Pergola

If your backyard doesn’t have a large tree providing shade, a pergola may be the perfect solution! For the DIY-lovers, building a pergola is a fun project that can add a unique element to upgrade your lawn. The extra shade makes it the perfect place to read, relax or reminisce with friends. If you plan on spending a lot of time sitting under your pergola, add decorative curtains for extra sun and weather protection.

5. Hang Decorative Lights

String lights or lanterns are an affordable and beautiful addition to any backyard. For those who love to spend summer nights outside, these lights can truly brighten up your space—literally. While a soft, yellow glow may be a more peaceful addition, colorful lanterns might give your backyard the pop of color it needs!

6. Build A Fence

Looking for some much-needed privacy? Build a fence! As long as your neighborhood allows it, a fence can upgrade your lawn—and add value to your home. While this project may take a few days to complete, we assure you it’s a DIY project worth investing in.

7. Make A Space For Outdoor Dining

Take the indoors out by creating a space for outdoor dining. Outdoor dinner parties are perfect for summer—, especially under decorative string lights! If you have a large enough space, an outdoor dining area will offer additional seating while also giving you a space to entertain family and friends.

8. Craft A Fire Pit

Speaking of entertaining friends and family, a fire pit is an easy DIY project that you can enjoy all throughout the year. Surround your firepit with handmade benches, or affordable chairs. Then, decorate the space! And don’t forget the marshmallows—an essential to any fire pit.

9. Set Up A Few Lawn Games

For a quick and affordable backyard project, clear a space for lawn games. Games like cornhole, badminton, Kan Jam and more are easy to set up and fun for the whole family. Invite friends over for a friendly tournament, or play one-on-one. Either way, you’re sure to enjoy lawn games all summer long.

To learn how to play these lawn games and more, read our blog

5 Lawn Games To Play This Summer

10. Plant Fresh Flowers

It’s amazing what planting a few flowers can do for your lawn. Their bright colors can elevate practically any space. Plant flowers around your mailbox, in your garden, around your home—the options are endless! Potted plants by your front door or flowers in window boxes are also unique ways to add color to your home and upgrade your lawn. Before planting your flowers though, you need to decide where you want to plant them. Certain flowers will need more sun than others, and some will hardly need sun at all, so choose wisely. Then, do your research! Certain flowers or plants are known to attract pests while others are known to deter them. Finally, stage your flowers to determine the best layout based on height, size and color. You don’t want your flowers to grow over each other, so plant strategically.

11. Get Creative With Landscaping

If you’ve got a green thumb, don’t stop with just a few flowers. Instead, get creative with landscaping. When planned correctly, proper landscaping can transform any backyard into an oasis. Well maintained bushes, trees and plants accompanied with specific decorative elements can make your lawn the best looking yard on the block. However, to achieve this level of precision and care, you’re better off leaving it to the professionals. So skip the DIY and give Killingsworth a call! When you want to upgrade your lawn, trust our team to get the job done. We have over 26 years of experience in lawn care, so we know what it takes to transform your backyard. If you’re ready to improve your yard just in time for summer, let us help! Schedule a service today to see what we can do for you. 

DIY Outdoor Design Ideas To Transform Your Lawn

Bedbug inspection

How to Know if Your Hotel Has Bedbugs

Upon entering a hotel room, do you typically reach for the tiny toiletries, take a leap onto the bed, or perhaps start by inspecting for bed bugs? Knowing what to look for is essential. Anticimex Carolinas Service Manager Christian Tweed has shared valuable insights on identifying bed bugs in your hotel room and preventing them from hitching a ride back home with you. And if bed bugs do become an unexpected part of your vacation, remember that Clark’s Pest Control is here to assist!



Q&A with a Pest Professional


How do bed bugs get inside hotels?


Bed bugs are primarily hitchhiking insects as opposed to foraging ones, meaning that they get carried around on people’s clothes and belongings. Someone with an active infestation in their home can easily bring bed bugs to their hotel, but they can also be picked up during travel (airplanes, taxis, and rideshare services) and brought to a hotel room.


What do people misunderstand about bed bugs in hotels?


From a probability standpoint, all hotels will deal with bed bugs at some point in time. If you think about a bed bug’s method of travel, there’s literally nothing a hotel can do to stop them from being carried in. What I have realized is that luxury hotels are more likely to have an aggressive response to dealing with a bed bug case once it’s identified as they tend to have a higher quality of service and a reputation to protect. While this isn’t always the case, it has been my experience more often than not.

Got bedbugs? Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today!

What do you recommend travelers do when they get to their room to check for bed bugs?


Most hotel headboards hang directly on the wall. I start my inspection here before even looking at the bed itself. I have found bed bugs, their exoskeletons, and the telltale black stains they leave behind around the edges of or in the crevices of headboards. If the headboard looks clean, move on to looking over the pillowcases and comforter for any signs or stains. You can dig into the bedding as deep as you want here, but I encourage people to look over the top layer of things at the very least.


What are some lesser-known signs of bed bugs in your hotel room?


The specifics of the black stains they leave behind, which as gross as it sounds, are just digested blood as that’s all that bed bugs feed on. If the stains are on a hard surface, they will be small dots as if left behind by an ink pen and will smear into a brownish gray when moisture is applied. If they’re on fabric, they will usually bleed along the fibers making a small diamond, square or X shape.


If there are bed bugs in your hotel room, can they travel home with you?


They absolutely can, however this is easy to prevent. While staying in a hotel, keep as much of your clothing and luggage off the beds as possible. Storing suitcases in the bathroom might sound odd, but it’s an effective method of prevention.

Don’t tackle bedbugs yourself, call Clark’s at 866-781-4991!

What should you do with your suitcase if you suspect your hotel has bed bugs?


When arriving home from a trip, leave your luggage in the garage or on a porch and bring your clothes in one load of laundry at a time. If the clothes are dirty, wash them like you normally would, if they’re clean then run them through the dryer for at least forty-five minutes. Once your suitcase is empty, vacuum over it meticulously (don’t forget to empty the vacuum when you’re done), or if you’re in the right climate, expose it to heat for a few days by placing it in your vehicle (parked in the sun) or for a few weeks in your attic.


The Clark’s Solution


If you brought bed bugs back to you home, Clark’s is here to help. Our Bedbug Control service is designed to eliminate bedbugs and create a safe, comfortable environment.


A Clark’s Pest Professional will do an inspection and recommend a plan of attack to get rid of bed bugs now and prevent them from hatching in the future. Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today for more information.




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