Archive for Garden Landscaping
February 9, 2009 at 3:54 pm · Filed under Garden Landscaping
One of the great things about landscape design is the flexibility it offers. You can make it very simple and get your feet wet so to speak. Later, you can re-do the area, or do another area in a more complex design as you gain more knowledge. It’s easy to get started, but you can never run out of things to try. Master designers who have been at the practice for years are still learning and experimenting!
Start with the basics. Consider the areas where you want shrubs, flowers, trees, walkways, a complete garden, a pond, a brick wall and so forth. Don’t feel overwhelmed, though. Keep your first efforts simple and easy to execute. Work your way up.
After you have a basic mental image, make some sketches. It doesn’t matter if you can’t draw like an artist. All you need are some rough shapes, a few simple circles, triangles or rectangles in order to lay out an approximate area. If you want to graduate to the next stage early, consider some landscape design software.
Consider what will go best into the areas you’ve penciled out. You may have envisioned a rectangular garden near one wall of the house, for example. Make some preliminary measurements, then consider which plants should go where within the space. One design could call for taller flowers in back, with shorter ones in the middle, and ground cover in front and between. That keeps everything visible to viewers standing in front.
Just because the area is rectangular, though, you needn’t limit yourself to smaller rows or rectangles within. You could, for example, place a birdbath in the center. That small circle could form the hub of spokes radiating outward in a sun pattern. Those spokes could be formed by bricks, dividing the rectangle into a series of triangles of different shapes and sizes.
You could then have different plants in different triangles - cherry tomatoes in one area, foxgloves in another, thyme over here, chives over there, yarrow in front, tansy in the back.
Observe that the example has not only an arrangement that varies the space in a visually interesting way, but allows each plant to be seen differently from different angles. On each of the three sides, the viewer gets a very different look.
Varying the color arrangements adds yet another level of complexity and delight to an already interesting design. Bright yellow tansy can be a nice contrast to pink foxgloves. Chives, with their thin green stalks and pale lavender flowers provides additional variety.
The number of possible design variations is limitless. You may have a kidney-shaped area to fill, or simply want to line a short, white picket fence with some pleasant shrubs. You may want to have a shade tree in the center of the yard, with irises poking up along the side of the house.
While you shape and contour your outdoor living area, let your imagination grow wild.
February 9, 2009 at 3:51 pm · Filed under Garden Landscaping
Most gardeners who live in cold climates just pack up for winter and head inside. Watching the landscape through a window, they see stretches of snow covered ground, dead stalks and a few hardy evergreens. Not a bad view, actually!
But for the truly adventurous there are many choices of shrub or tree that can help brighten even those gloomy winter scenes, inside and out.
Holly has been popular around Christmas for centuries. With year-round foliage and colorful berries, it will bring life and color into your life. The bush tolerates cutting even in the dead of winter, so you can prune a few to hang on the door, or make a nice decoration for the dinner table.
China Holly is a delightful variation. Rounded and about 8 foot high, they’re drought tolerant and just beautiful. Inkberry Holly is a nice choice, too. It’s shorter and the black berries make for an interesting difference from the usual type. Winterberry Holly is a good choice if you want to attract those few bird species that hang around during the cold months.
Birch trees add an artistic touch to the landscape and can be used as lining around your property or as a centerpiece in the lawn. Since they’re deciduous they lose their leaves in the late Fall, but the subtle coloring of the wood and the shape of the branches make them natural sculpture.
Paper Birch has bark that makes an interesting appearance, as it sheds and folds. A variety known as Yellow Birch is a colorful type. Young’s Weeping Birch grows only to six to twelve feet, making it a wonderful shorter version. Most birch trees can grow 60 feet or more over a period of decades.
Yew trees have long been associated with the Christmas season in Great Britain, but can be grown in many countries. Their evergreen needles and bright red berries provide a nice bit of color during winter. Be sure not to eat the berries, which are poisonous.
Several Japanese species have evolved in the windswept areas and form lovely additions to the home. The Japanese Barberry is a roundish shrub that does well in certain parts of the country. They’re hardy up to Zone 3. A few feet high and wide, they produce lovely Fall colors and the berries will last until very late into the season.
The American version will thrive in Zones 2-8 and its fruit is a favorite of birds. They’re also deer resistant, so if you live in an area they frequent you get two benefits in one bush. During the other seasons you might enjoy the fragrant foliage.
Complete the picture with a tall grass that can add to the scene in winter. Plume grass is an ornamental and will last all year round in Zones 4-9. With a thin shaft and puffy top, you’ll enjoy seeing them against the background.
Don’t let winter stop you from enjoying your green thumb. Pick some winter plants today.
February 9, 2009 at 3:51 pm · Filed under Garden Landscaping
Perennials are plants, usually flowering types, that come back year after year. They differ in when they blossom, but once planted they will burst forth with color every year if treated well. Biennials are similar, but only bloom every other year.
Perennials typically have less vibrant colors than annuals, which last only one year. But they are still often very beautiful. Pale pinks, subtle oranges, delicate yellows and gentle blues and purples can all be found among perennial species. Gardens composed of these flowers, at least in part, often have a very relaxing effect on the viewer.
Perennials come in much more than just flowering types as well. There are many perennials that have only very tiny or no flowers, but are nonetheless very attractive plants. They help to flesh out a garden, and provide the ability to design variety into the layout. Separating bright annuals with non-flowering perennials makes it possible to create an infinite variety of colored shapes and shapely colors.
Foxgloves are a perennial that have long rows of pale orange or pink, bell-shaped flowers along a thick green stalk. A few of these are a delightful addition to any garden, since they are easy to care for and give the garden variety in height and shape.
Hostas are another excellent perennial. Their large, light green leaves make for a beautiful display and, for a few weeks or longer, their lovely white flowers are a wonderful sight. They take very little care, since they get along on very little water. They do very well in partial shade, too.
In the Fall the blooms will die, and later the leaves will shrivel up to thin, light brown vegetation. The transformation is really astounding, considering the width of hosta leaves (nearly a foot) during the height of Summer. Just chop off the dead leaves at ground level before winter and you are all ready to go for the following Spring.
Thyme makes for great ground cover and requires almost no work at all. Sage, too, is terrific for adding not only a pleasant light green color to your garden, but a wonderful fragrance as well. Yarrow will work well interspersed between flowers and ground cover. Just be sure to keep it under control, since it can spread and take over large areas.
Irises have a lovely, large yellow flower on a tall green stalk. They come back year after year and only require a little tug once in a while to pull off the dead, wilted flowers as they bloom and re-bloom.
Bougainvillea bushes are an excellent addition and can be grown in a wide variety of zones. They thrive in the hot weather of California, but tolerate the winters in the Northwest equally well. Drought tolerant and easy to care for, their numerous bright red blossoms make them an excellent choice.
Though the colors are sometimes more muted, there are more perennials than any one garden could possible house. So you have lots of choices for low-effort, beautiful plants that will last year after year.
July 18, 2007 at 11:47 am · Filed under Garden Landscaping, Roses
By: Charles Bankston
www.PerennialAndRoseGardening.net
Monroe, Louisiana
Have you ever walked out into your flower or perennial garden in the early spring and asked yourself, “Now where did I put that Coreopsis, or where is that new coneflower plant that I planted last summer?”? If you’re like me you do it quite often. Once you obtain more than a handful of plants and your yard or garden becomes a collection of perennials and other plants it becomes rather difficult to remember where everything is located. If you find yourself in this predicament I’ve found a useful, simple way to avoid this gardening dilemma. One way is to document each plant in your garden with a simple map. But if you’re like me, your plant locations change frequently and it’s time consuming to maintain a map of plants. So, I elect for what I think is an easier, more realistic method.
Read the rest of this entry »
July 11, 2007 at 6:41 pm · Filed under Garden Landscaping
The type of hose repair needed depends, of course, on the type of leak you have. Here are two different possibilities for a leak, and how to fix them.
Read the rest of this entry »
July 11, 2007 at 6:39 pm · Filed under Garden Landscaping
The metal parts of shovels, hoes, pole saws and other lawn tools with wooden pole handles always seem to outlast the handle. A broken handle usually renders the tool useless. Sometimes total replacement is the least expensive alternative, but it can be frustrating when the tool is relatively new. To replace just the handle can be simple and inexpensive, and satisfying, with the right tools and technique.
Read the rest of this entry »
July 1, 2007 at 2:36 pm · Filed under Garden Landscaping
One of the most beautiful landscape designs incorporates plants and structures to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. These colorful creatures add a wonderful natural touch to a garden and landscape. Hummingbirds, with their colorful bodies and fast-flitting flight, are a delightful contrast to the multi-colored butterflies who move slow enough to be caught by hand.
Read the rest of this entry »
July 1, 2007 at 2:32 pm · Filed under Garden Landscaping
Observe that the title does not say ‘Eliminate Weeds Forever’. Don’t we wish? But like any problem, weeds can often be brought down to manageable proportions.
Read the rest of this entry »
« Previous entries ·
Next entries »
