Patio furniture is an excellent addition to any outdoor space. From the smallest patio to the most sprawling yard, patio furniture instantly transforms it to usable living space. Furniture designed for outdoor use is traditionally made with durable and functional materials. Examples of these materials are plastic resins, cast-aluminum, and various woods. Each of the materials have different qualities that impact their appropriate use.

Fertigator Fertilizer systems are a type of fertigation system. Fertigation, usually used among landscapers, is a type of automatic fertilizer injection system that can be connected to any in-ground sprinkler system. You might consider this process as a form of “spoon feeding” your soil, since the objective is to send small amounts of fertilizer through an irrigation system each time the system becomes active.

What if there was software with the elegance and extensibility of WordPress but all the features you’ve come to expect from social networks like Facebook? Now there is: check out BuddyPress.

BuddyPress is an official sister project of WordPress. The idea behind it was to see what would happen to the web if it was as easy for anyone to create a social network as it is to create a blog today. There’s been an explosion of social activity on the web, it’s probably the most important trend of the past few years, but there’s been a dearth of Open Source tools that enable the social web.

In WordPress we have a robust and extensible base that can scale to many millions of users, and BuddyPress is essentially a set of plugins on top of WordPress that add private messaging, profiles, friends, groups, activity streams, and everything else you’ve come to expect from your favorite social network, like a Facebook-in-a-box.

I don’t think BuddyPress will be something you use instead of your existing social networks, I mean all your friends are already on Myspace, but if you wanted to start something new maybe with more control, friendlier terms of service, or just something customized and tweaked to fit exactly into your existing site, then BuddyPress is a great framework to use. Maybe even someday you’ll be able to connect your BuddyPresses to each other and to the existing monolithic social networks.

This is just a 1.0 release and it’s not for everybody yet, for example it currently requires using MU which is a bit trickier to get set up than regular WordPress, but regardless I’d recommend diving into the community at BuddyPress.org, which is great example of the software in action.

Here’s Andy’s official announcement post.

There are times when we see something nice and we think of it as a nice addition to our home. There are times, too, when that addition does not simply add up and fail to reach our expectations. If you are fond of looking at home furnishings and structures that can adorn the interiors and exteriors of your home, then you should think deeply first and try to weight the pros and cons of having something before you decide to buy it.

Who would not want a garden that attracts beautiful butterflies? A butterfly garden can be relaxing and entertaining as well. The following are a few tips for creating the perfect garden for a variety of butterfly species to visit your garden often.

The first consideration will be the planning of the ponds (for such they are) and in that you must be guided by the levels in your garden and your desires in the matter of water area. If there is a distinct slope in the garden surface, so much the better. It will help you come up with a simple arrangement for running off the water, as must be done from time to time to keep ponds clean and their tenants in healthy condition.

The poll is closed, the votes are counted, and the results are interesting. The table below shows the actual breakdown of the poll votes, of which there were 2,651. As you can see, there were four main contenders: Dean J. Robinson’s Fluency-based submissions (two variations), the existing 2.7 interface, and Matt Thomas’s comp (MT), which exists somewhere between them in terms of style. Note: GB was a late entry, and was posted after over 900 votes had already been collected.

As several people have rightly pointed out, the Fluency-style designs not only took the top spot, but in combination added up to a higher percentage than any other. We’re not focusing solely on that statistic, though, because had other designers submitted multiple versions, the numbers might have looked different. What was most interesting for me was checking in on the votes over the course of the two days the poll was open. The top three (Fluency-dark, Current 2.7, MT) kept beating each other out for the #1 spot as they cycled back and forth through the top three slots, and had the poll closed on time (left it open a little longer in case anyone translated the time zone incorrectly), the order would have been a bit different.

What’s more interesting to me is the overall style that seems to be preferred among voters, as Matt’s comp has some stylistic similarities to Dean’s (see image at left). It also would be interesting to know how many of the votes for the current 2.7 interface were based on thinking it looked the best vs. how many were votes against changing the interface at all so soon after the 2.7 redesign. If you want to comment on what you liked best and/or least about any of the designs, this thread is a good place.

So what happens now? However we look at it, the Fluency-style designs clearly have a lot of fans. Then again, so do the designs of Matt Thomas (he’s behind the current style of 2.7, remember, in addition to the comp labeled MT). To give the interface the attention it is due, and to take seriously some of the interface feedback around usability and accessibility, we’re going to leave the looks alone for 2.8. It’s our guess that a revised style will make into 2.9 early in the development cycle to allow us plenty of time for user testing and revision. How close it winds up being to the comps submitted in this design tweaks challenge will depend, but in the meantime:

Congratulations, Dean J. Robinson, on winning the vote!

Solar garden decor provides a fast and rewarding way to bring your yard to life. These garden accents can be enjoyed both day and night and use clean, renewable energy.

Solar lighting fixtures of this variety now come in a huge array of styles, shapes and materials, but all are made to be highly portable, incredibly durable and long-lasting. Consider that they utilize LED bulbs, which require maintenance on a very limited basis – usually only once every few years.

It takes more than a nice paint job to make a house attractive. Landscaping is an essential part of any homemaking process.