Square foot gardening is one of the latest trends in growing your own food. Creating a sustainable garden is not only eco friendly but also very healthy. Sadly, not everyone has enough space to grow all the great fruits and veggies we love so much. Square foot gardening changes all that because it makes the growing area compact and easy to care for because the plants take up a smaller amount of yard space. Square foot gardening is also great for those who want to begin growing their own fruits and vegetables but want to start small.

Growing your own food doesn’t have to be difficult, the following infographic is a great place to get started learning about backyard, patio or square foot gardens.

Browse more How To infographics.

Want to learn even more? Check out A Backyard Farm for tips on getting started with your new garden.

The Lincoln Memorial during a fireworks show on Independence Day (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Can you believe Fourth of July is next week? This summer is already slipping away but it’s not too late to make plans to have a great 4th of July Celebration with family, friends and neighbors. The events listed below include parades, fireworks displays and many other activities for celebrating summer and Independence Day 2012 for the Salt Lake City area, the Wasatch Front area and other areas of Utah.

Hot Rockin’ 4th - Northern Utah’s Biggest 4th of July Celebration! Festivities include carnival rides, Dunk Tank, Bungee Trampoline, Jugglers, and a magic show just to name a few! This is one big event. Fireworks start at 10pm so come early and grab a great seat!

Fourth of July at Tooele City is planning a weeklong event to celebrate the nations birthday. Little Texas and Restless Heart will be performing as well. Click here for more information about this great Independence Day event in Tooele.

North Salt Lake is having its annual Independence Day Celebration complete with 5k race. Even the kids can participate in a 1k race! The NSL annual fireworks show will be held July 3, 2012 at Eaglewood Golf Course. Schedule of events: 6:00 pm- spectators invited to come set up, booths open 6:30 pm- live music begins 9:00 pm- aerial flyover 9:15 pm- sky divers arrive 10:00 pm- fireworks begin.

The Sugar House Fireworks 2012 is planned for Wednesday, July 4, at the Sugar House Park and will feature a 30-minute firework show presented by Vortex Fireworks. Concessions and vendors will be at the park before the fireworks show along with necessary police and medical personnel for security and safety assistance.

PRCA Rodeo - The Western Stampede Rodeo has been a West Jordan tradition since 1954. This year we are excited to welcome back Cotton Rosser’s Flying U Rodeo production company, famous for putting on an entertaining “showed!” Fireworks follow the rodeo.

FREEDOM FEST 2012 - July 3rd 6-10 p.m. at the former Granite H.S. property 3305 S 500 E. Enjoy live music, unique booths, food, and fireworks! 5K fun run 7:00 a.m. at Fitts Park on July 4th followed by the 4th of July parade.

America’s Freedom Festival at Provo - The Beach Boys will be singing this 4th of July at the Freedom Festival of Provo as part of their 50th anniversary tour. The Grand Parade will be held at 9am. The parade will follow the same route as in previous years. It begins at 960 N. University Ave. and proceeds south to 100 S. and then turns east to 200 E. From there it turns north to Center St. and then turns east and ends at 900 E.

These are just some of the great events celebrating our nations birthday and independence. If you would like to add your event to this list please leave the information in the comment section.

The 2012 Parade of Homes begins at 2 pm today! We have 2 homes this year, #26 in Layton and #27 in South Weber. We have promotional events going on throughout the parade so make sure you pay us a visit so you don’t miss out! Hope to see you all there!

For parade information: http://www.utahparade.com/bf/ut/nwhba/mem/association.jsp?pid=1160

If you’ve been thinking about changing things up a bit around the house, painting is an easy, fast and economical way to make your home feel new again. Painting can improve your mood and is easy to do, most rooms can be painted in a weekend. Deciding to paint a room a new color is easy but choosing the color can be hard.

There are so many paint colors out there, how do you know what the best color is going to be? Of course it always helps to talk to a painting professional so be sure to consult with the person selling your paint. He or she is going to know the right texture that will fit your lifestyle.

When it comes to choosing a color you might want to do a little research. There is a whole line of study behind colors and what they mean and how they make you feel.

Choosing a color can have an impact on your mood and well being. Yellow is a very cheerful color but it strains the eye and has been known to make babies cry. Red is a great choice for the dining room if you aren’t on a diet, it can increase your appetite.

There is a science behind the colors we love so take a look at the following infographic to learn more about colors before you buy the paint for your next home improvement project.

The Ogden Farmers Market will be open every Saturday from 8 am to 3pm starting July 14th and will continue thru September 29th.

There is nothing like fresh produce to really get summer cooking. If you don’t have time or space to grow your own fresh produce, don’t worry, you can find all your favorite veggies at the Ogden Farmers Market.

Some of the great food vendors include Wild Bills, Sugarhouse Grill,Chaparro’s Tamales and Sandra’s Pies. Food growers include the Allred Family Garden, Castle Valley Greenhouses, Roberts Family Farms and Woods Berry Farm. But that’s just a small sample of all the great growers who will be featured this year.

In addition to all the great food you can find at the Ogden Farmers Market this year there will also be a ton of crafters and artisans showing their wares.

The Ogden Farmers Market is located at 2484 Washington Blvd. Ste 101 Ogden, Utah 84401. If you would like to be a vendor at the farmers market you can click here to learn more.

1571 North 475 East – No. Ogden, UT 84404

One week and counting!

Join us for the 2012 Parade of Homes! Thanks to all the hard work of the Northern Wasatch Homebuilders Association and all the other builders participating in this years parade, we hope to have the best turnout ever! We have two beautiful homes this year. One in South Weber and one in Layton. Check out our photo gallery on our Facebook page!

Nilson Homes on Facebook

For more information about the Parade, click on the link below.

2012 NWHBA Parade of Homes

With the economy still chugging along at a slow pace and the housing market limping along behind it’s no wonder more and more people are staying in their homes longer than ever before. Part of that may be due to the difficulty most people have getting financing and some of it may be due to the lowered confidence many of us have in the current economy.

Regardless the reason many homeowners are tackling small home improvement projects, even some big ones, to make their homes livable longer. As you can see there are many fun and exciting trends in home improvement this year.

Going green was a huge trend last year and will continue to be this year. Smaller renovations are both popular and cost efficient. Making upgrades to the home’s infrastructure (which really just means updating the technology in the home) is a hot trend with today’s builders and remodelers.  The following infographic shows just what the hot trends of 2011 were and what they will continue to be in the year 2012.

The town homes at Aspen Meadows of Mountain Green, Utah are maintenance free – Which means you get to spend your weekends doing the things you want to do and not the things you have to do like cutting grass, trimming the trees, shoveling the snow and fixing stuff.

You can spend you weekends hiking, fishing, and mountain biking instead of cutting the grass.

In addition to saving you all kinds of precious weekend time ‘maintenance free’ also means you can avoid these pitfall, accidents and dangerous risks that landscapers and maintenance workers face every day.

Just another reason to contact us about your next new home in Mountain Green.