Home and Garden Forever

Welcome!  Home and Garden Forever is here to bring you the best in home and garden for today, tomorrow and beyond.  We are well aware there are many home and garden websites to choose from, so we truly appreciate you being with us.

In thinking about our childhoods, memories of backyard barbecues, helping our parents with the gardening and running in the sprinklers sometimes come to mind.  What we don’t remember was how much work went into maintaining a green lawn for us to play on and a clean barbecue for us to eat off of (cause mom and dad handled it for us!).  Now that we’re the mom and dad of the house, we realize how much work it is.

Luckily we’re not the only ones who have realized this, as mega-corporations exist solely to provide us with products that make our lives around the house easier and safer.  Johnson and Johnson and Home Depot for example.  With that said, everything comes with a price tag, and with so many options to choose from, sometimes it can be hard to choose anything at all.

Fortunately, the Internet allows the masses to converge and provide unbiased reviews of anything under the sun.  We at Home and Garden Forever plan to use this information as leverage in the quest to provide you with the best home and garden consumer products, tips and recommendations possible.

Throughout our site you will find product reviews, tips and recommendations based on mass social approval.  Without getting technical, mass social approval will be defined as something that has been reviewed by the masses and adopted as worthy of our time or money.  Given this, you will not find any paid product placement on our site.  While we are supported by advertising, we do not maintain a relationship with the advertisers on our site.  Their ads are displayed through a third party network, meaning you never have to worry about biased reviews or products that have not demonstrated their worth yet.

As far as the categories we will cover, well, we’ll cover just about anything related to your home and garden.  The kitchen, the garden, the bathroom, the garage, any outdoor structures you may have (awnings, storage units, lawnmower sheds), pool and hot-tub supplies; you name it.  Our goal is to provide you with the most accurate information available so you can make the most informed decision possible.

Before we get into individual products, however, we will begin with some major themes and trends for 2012.  Let’s start with the gardening category…

It appears that the authority on all things color, Pantone, has declared Orange (Tangerine Tango to be exact) the color of the year.  Expect to see orange flowers and small trees with orange blossoms in your local nursery this year.  And while blue has been a consistent winner in the Perennial Plant Association’s Plant of the Year, there may be breakthroughs on the way in 2012.

It appears the high-tech breeding company Florigene and Suntory has found a way to introduce a blue gene commonly found the pansy into the genetics of a rose.  As stated on their website, the introduction of a ‘blue rose’ is high on their list of objectives, and those in the industry expect that it could be on nursery shelves sometime this year.  This news is great for garden heads as blue and orange complement each other, meaning you won’t have to toss your Delta Dawns in order to be the first on the block with a blue rose garden.

Flowering shrubs should also become highly popular this year.  Not only are they easy to maintain, they take up a fair amount of space.  Low maintenance plus sweet smelling flowers = a winner this year.

And while this is not a new concept, 2012 is turning into the year of DIY.  And we don’t just mean laying tile in your bathroom.  With costs rising and wages stagnant, more and more homeowners are doing things themselves.  Whether they’re learning how to give themselves manicures or cut their own hair, people are taking maintenance into their own hands, and this includes gardening.  Expect to see people move beyond tomatoes and oranges into a wider range of foods (including nesting chickens for eggs and meat!).  We also expect to see a higher number of small, high-yield plants, as pumpkins and the like take up too much space.

Another trend we’re seeing is the use of plants in combination with outdoor landscapes.  Obviously, plants, trees and flowers have always been part of landscaping (duh!).  But this year, we’re seeing landscapers use plants to create a modern atmosphere.  Think outdoor fireplaces surrounded by soft shrubs of similar hues.  This is particularly true for the Gen-Yers, as they are assessing the full impact of their landscapes, not only from a financial or design point of view, but from an environmental and wellness point of view too.

And when it comes to gardening – there’s an App for that.  That’s right, apps like iGarden USA, Essential Garden Guide, the Garden How-To and Landscaper’s Companion are all highly popular within iTunes, and we doubt it’s the baby boomers buying all these apps.

That’s just the garden though; we haven’t even touched on trends for the home!

As we’ve already heard, Tangerine Tango is the color of the year.  We would advise against going too crazy with this one, but orange accents and smaller furniture items (chairs for example) are in this year.

Symmetrical wooden floor patterns are also in this year, reducing reliance on decorative items like lamps and tablecloths to provide texture.  Be careful with this one though; you don’t want to end up with an expensive flooring job you end up hating just because the sample looked good.

And since we’re talking about potentially ugly designs, we might as well talk about wallpaper.  That’s right, it started making a comeback in early 2011 and should continue it’s course in 2012.  Don’t break out your old photo albums and start getting excited about the 60s coming back though; wallpaper these days is different.

Today’s wallpaper could be defined as eccentric, trendy, and for the most part symmetrical.  Think a Pac-Man course, but cute.  That’s just the living room though.  In the bedroom, we’re seeing a much different retro-type shift.

In the bedroom, old is new.  Americana and the days of the Amish have made a comeback, but with a modern twist.  Think modern country home.  Classic but well maintained (if not new) furniture and natural hues (creamy whites, natural browns and foresty greens) are in this year.  And for those of you who still have furniture from your parent’s Amish farming days, well, you’re one step ahead of the game   You knew it’d pay off eventually, right?

For those of you who dream of Paris, you’re in luck!  Modern design combined with hints of Parisian flare here and there is big amongst interior designers in L.A. this year.  And we must say, they’re onto something here.

Last but not least is a theme that has carried over from the past two years and will only become stronger in the future.  This theme, or phenomenon, is that of consumers demanding quality, design and functionality.  Gone are the days of wasteful products, and by wasteful we mean products that both take up unnecessary space and products that involve wasteful manufacturing processes.

Consumers these days are demanding high quality products that look good, serve their purpose, are durable, and are environmentally responsible.  Luckily for us, many of the products that fall into this category are made in the U.S.A.  And buying local is a big theme this year.  Local doesn’t just mean made in the USA though, instead we’re seeing modern consumers lean towards farmers markets and boutique stores.  Small furniture items and home goods in particular fall into this category.

Speaking of environmentally responsible products, no discussion of the home and garden would be complete without touching on ‘going green.’  With the economy failing to truly gain steam, homeowners are looking for ways to go green without breaking the bank.

One of the first things anyone thinks about when going green is lights.  And while compact florescents have been the big thing the past few years, they are so 2011.  LEDs have proven to consume less energy and last longer.  Further, LEDs are super crisp, and have a lot of design potential.

And with the economy sputtering, many homeowners are remodeling and upgrading their homes instead of moving.  This makes for the perfect opportunity to invest in insulation, double pane windows that aren’t as sensitive to the outside temperature, upgrading to energy efficient appliances, and more.

For those of you who do have a larger budget, energy monitoring systems are the new thing.  They plug directly into your home’s circuit and allow you to analyze your energy consumption on a digital screen (and some even hook up to your smartphone or computer!).  The idea is that being more aware of your consumption will help you find ways to decrease it.  With that said, these are not cheap, so it may take a while for these to pay for themselves.