Welcome to Dreamtime for Spring 2013!

"A watched winter never leaves".

I look out my window to see the fresh snow that fell, and wonder if spring will ever come. Sometimes I envy people in tropical locations for their weather, but I also love the four seasons. Like anything in life, it's all about the right balance.

The problem here is we only have two seasons. Winter and summer. Occasionally we experience "almost winter" that some people call fall. We really don't have a spring. It goes from winter straight to summer. I'm sure there are a few readers familiar with this type of climate?

In Alberta, we aren't free and clear of winter here until May. April can be unpredictable, and usually throws a couple of last blasts our way. The leaves don't fully drop on the trees until the last week or two in May.

One of the great ways to escape the winter blues is a vacation mid-way through the winter, but not everyone can afford those whenever they want. Day trips to indoor gardens can be a refreshing escape for a few hours for those of you that have them in your cities.

One of my favorite ways to keep my mind in a better place through the winter is looking at pictures. They capture my mind and take it away, like a good book draws you into another world. Which leads me into how our site is moving forward and our feature article this month on Pinterest.

We have also been working on some other improvements, including our new logo and site design for Dream-yard. I guess these are great announcements for this month's Spring edition of Dreamtime on new growth.

It's been a while since we sent out a newsletter, but that's because we have been so busy making these improvements to the site for our visitors.

Now, we are looking forward to spending some time together again by sharing what's been happening.

Table of Contents

1. Thoughts & Inspiration

2. Feature Article: Pinterest for Landscape Inspiration

3. What's New at Dream-yard

4. Share

1. Thoughts & Inspiration

This month's newsletter is dedicated to Spring and new growth.

“All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.”
~Henry Miller

“Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one step back. Remember that and be very gentle with yourself.”
~Julia Cameron

2. Feature Article:
Pinterest - Inspirational Landscaping Ideas

If you don't already know what the hottest social networking tool is on the internet, here it is. Pinterest, is a virtual pinboard where you can collect pictures of all the wonderful things in your life, and share them with others.

This is not just something we use as a tool. It is also a great inspiration of success. Here is my little story.

In August of 2011, I contacted a fellow website owner just to clarify some picture copyright information and comment on his site. I told him his site was a fantastic idea and congratulated him on his future success that I was sure he would have.

At the time of this phone call, his Alexa traffic rank was somewhere around the top 500,000 sites in the world. Today it is in the top 50. This also made Pinterest one of the fastest growing websites in the world.

I could tell he was a very appreciative, decent, respectable and polite person from his responses on the phone. I just love hearing about great success stories from good people.

Congratulations, to Ben and his team at Pinterest for their success, and providing us with a wonderful tool to find inspiring ideas for our yards. It is also a great way to escape the winter blues.

We received a personal invite from Ben after the phone call, and we have been busy building our boards ever since. We now have over 6,500 landscaping pictures categorized on over 70 different boards.

Landscaping photos are inspiring for everyone. If you are looking for ideas for your yard, please click on the follow us button to visit our boards or see some examples below.

We hope you enjoy our site and have great success with all your DIY landscaping projects.

If you have any questions or comments on our site please feel free to Contact Us at any time.

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful day.

The Dream-yard Team.

3. What's new at Dream-yard?

Don't miss it! Sign up for our RSS feed so you never miss a new addition to the site.

New Modules and other Information!

"New" How-to Module: Advanced Flagstone Tips

This module is for those people looking to DIY their Flagstone project like a professional. Lots of photos and tricks of the trade to help you work with the most challenging part of the project. (The surface).

Landscaping Tips This is a new interactive sharing page so that anyone (DIYers and Professionals) can offer their insights and tips for landscaping projects.

See our first few submissions: Landscaping Installation Plan This page explains tips on sequencing you landscaping work.

Landscaping Planning This page shares the tip "Look up, down and underground!" What to do before you begin.

Do you have a great tip or experience, you'd love to share? Tell us about. If you have a website or blog, we will be linking back to your site from any tips page you build.

4. Share

If you are ready to brag about your your yard, we have a picture ideas section that is always growing. We are looking for submissions from both professionals and homeowners that wish to showcase their work.

For those of you with websites, we provide a link to your site to credit you with the work. For those of you interested in displaying your pictures, please feel free to Contact Us.

See something you like on our site, give us a like on facebook and share with your friends.

We love the site Pinterest! There are fantastic ideas out there on the web and we are happy to be able to share some of our favourites with you in our landscaping and gardening boards.

Our goal is to be the most informative, and educational landscaping site on the internet. This will give homeowners the resources they need to build their very own dream yard.

See you in a few weeks with our next edition!