The Advantages of Multipurpose Gardens

April 27, 2019 wandatineo Leave a comment

Based in New York, Wanda Tineo is an accomplished real estate agent and experienced insurance underwriting professional. When away from work, Wanda Tineo enjoys spending time maintaining her flower and vegetable gardens.

Gardening enthusiasts who enjoy planting both vegetables and flowers might not be aware of a new trend that not only sees vegetable gardens occupying high profile spaces around homes, but vegetables and flowers growing alongside one another in the same garden. The trend may be gaining steam in the United States, but European gardeners have embraced the union of food and flowers for centuries. Multipurpose gardens can provide homeowners with a number of benefits.

To start, multipurpose gardens bring all the benefits of individual gardens. Vegetables continue to provide families with produce, while flowers bring an aesthetic quality to a home and yard. Furthermore, flowers attract more pollinators than vegetables, which enjoy enhanced development thanks to the presence of more bees, butterflies, and other important insects. Similarly, these pollinators help to naturally regulate tomato hornworm and other garden pests, while the combination of food and flowers can sometime confuse and repel pests altogether.

Of course, gardeners will need to consider several things when blending vegetable and flower gardens. For example, flowers can provide extra camouflage for rabbits and other animals who like to lay low and consume a gardener’s crops. Gardeners will also need to do more work in regard to monitoring growing requirements and schedules, as well as plot sequencing.

Lifestyle, Wanda Tineo

Sizing Up Your First Vegetable Garden

March 16, 2019 wandatineo Leave a comment

Vegetable Garden pic — Vegetable Garden
Image: thespruce.com

Wanda Tineo has served as an underwriting professional with Allen Block Insurance Agency in Tarrytown, New York, and as a real estate agent in Piermont, New York. As a hobby, Wanda Tineo has focused much of her free time on maintaining her flower beds and vegetable gardens.

Determining the size of your first garden can be a challenge. To start with, you don’t want to be overly ambitious, planting on no more land than you are comfortable maintaining, nor do you want to be hemmed into a confined space. When it comes to vegetables, first-time gardeners are advised to plot out a 100-square-foot patch. This should allow the growth of three to five unique vegetables, which represents a manageable diversity for novices.

Assuming all goes well with the beginner garden, you can next consider a 300-to-500-square-foot space. This size garden can produce enough food for a family of four all summer, with more to spare. In fact, a general rule of thumb holds that about 100 square feet of gardening space should feed one person. If you and your family intend to eat year-round homegrown produce, this figure should be doubled.

Lifestyle, Wanda Tineo

The Basics of Seasonal Flowers

March 8, 2019 wandatineo Leave a comment

Seasonal Flowersp pic — Seasonal Flowers
Image: bgh.com

Wanda Tineo has enjoyed a successful career as a New York-based real estate and insurance professional, including time with Allan M. Block Insurance Agency in Tarrytown and Piermont’s Kennedy and Kennedy. Away from her professional activities, Wanda Tineo enjoys spending time tending to her vegetable and flower gardens.

Maintaining a healthy and beautiful flower garden can be quite a challenge, particularly if gardeners are planting flowers out of season. Fall flowers represent a great starting point for novice gardeners, as they may bloom during the warmth of early September or later in October. Geraniums and phlox maintain the bright colors of summer blooms, while cardinal flowers and black-eyed Susans are more telling of the autumnal season. Other fall flowers include dahlias and big leaf asters.

Winter might not seem like the right time of year for blooms, particularly in regions that experience freezing temperatures, but there are a few flowers that can be categorized as winter blooms, including lenten roses and primrose. Poinsettias, arguably the most well known winter flower, typically bloom in December, just in time for the holiday season.

Spring and summer blooms, of course, are abundant. Blue flag iris, daylilies, forget-me-nots, and peonies are just a fraction of the many spring flowers a gardener can choose from. Many summer flowers, including lavender and geraniums, are hardy enough to bloom year round in certain climates, though gardeners should be prepared to protect the plants from heat waves and dry spells.

Lifestyle, Wanda Tineo

The Psychological Benefits of Gardening

January 26, 2019 wandatineo Leave a comment

Gardening pic — Gardening
Image: aarp.org

An experienced insurance and real estate agent, Wanda Tineo most recently spent time representing property owners as an agent with Kennedy and Kennedy in Piermont, New York. Away from her professional responsibilities, Wanda Tineo is an avid gardener. She cares for both flower and vegetable gardens.

Gardening provides homeowners with a range of benefits, from improving the aesthetic appeal of one’s home to lower food costs. However, individuals who regularly engage in gardening may also experience a number of more surprising benefits. Research has indicated, for example, that gardening can improve a person’s mental health and overall sense of well being.

Although it may not seem like physically intense work, gardening offers a number of the same benefits as exercise. The physical exertion involved with gardening, as well as exposure to direct sunlight, results in an increased flow of oxygen to cells throughout the body, which in turn leads to reduced stress and improve mood.

Gardening also provides individuals with responsibility and feelings of accomplishment. One of the most common mental health issues treated by professionals involves obsessive, negative thought patterns that the person cannot help but repeat. Caring for plants over the course of a growing season, from seeds to flowers or vegetables, helps create new thought patterns associated with more productive behaviors. The daily sense of accomplishment gardeners experience, meanwhile, can lead to improved self esteem and overall wellness.

Insurance and Real Estate Agent