Plant Gardens 101

This blog is on cheap landscaping ideas. One of the main hassles of a garden is not planting, but weeding. Weeds grow with remarkable speed and can quickly overtake a garden. Using a poison or herbicide like roundup is not recommended as you might kill your plants. I know that the manufactors claim the product breaks down in the soil very quickly but I find with my lawn edges after a second dose of roundup no grass is growing there six months later. In moving into a new rental property I had a large front garden with a nice quickkerb concrete border to highlight the beautiful weeds. So I began to weed, got sick of it and left it for a month. Big mistake, there were now more weeds than ever. I was going to have to have mulch it or spend everyday in the garden. With the landlord not interested in paying for it it was going to have to come out of my own pocket. Now I don’t mine paying for gardening supplies, plants, etc when its my own place, but I’m certainly not keen on giving my landlord a free ride. So I needed a cheap mulching option, that would look good, work, but not cost too much. I chose three basic supplies, newspaper -the local rags free and it doesn’t take long to build up a stock pile of papers, sugar cane mulch – its comes in a big bags and is cheap, and finally a few bags of bark – not so cheap, but as you will see its used to give colour not as a mulch so only a little bit is required. (more…)

A dense area of scrubby undergrowth and small shrubs and trees.

A high-phosphate fertilizer often used when planting because phosphorus is the nutrient most responsible for root growth.

(1940–1996)

Director of the North Carolina State University Arboretum and one of the most influential horticulturists of the late 20th century. His passion was to extend the public’s interest beyond the suburban monoculture to incorporate worthy but uncommon species; to that end he wrote and lectured extensively and also answered thousands of letters and phone calls each year. See also North Carolina State University Arboretum.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people out there who want to compost but don’t know what exactly they’re allowed to put into their batches. Some even think that since it’s their pile of compost, they’re at liberty to put in just about anything they want. While it is a free country, you won’t be guaranteed a successful batch every time. This is why there are rules and guidelines to composting that you should follow.

I’m sure you’ve all heard before that adding food scraps to your compost is a good thing. Albeit this is true, you really want to avoid the meaty stuff like meat, bones, and grease because they don’t decompose properly, not to mention they smell bad. In addition, adding meat to your compost is like having an open invitation for rodents and other wildlife to feast in your backyard’s compost bin. Dairy products, oils and grease are also on the banned products list for the same reasons. (more…)

A fleshy clublike spike bearing minute flowers, usually enclosed within a sheathlike spathe, characteristic of aroid plants such as calla and jack-in-the-pulpit.

The botanical name for beard-tongue.

Hi, today I will show you how to build a water pond by yourself.

The first thing you need to do is, ask yourself where you want to put the pond. It should be in a place where you see it instantly upon entering the yard. You may also choose to install it at the back of your back yard. By installing the pond in the back portion of your yard, you will make the yard look deeper. I recommend installing the pond where it can be visible from the house at almost any angle. The second step is to pick the liner for your pond. You can choose a pre-formed liner or a soft liner. For this article we will discuss using the pre-formed liner. This liner is more durable, easier to install, and easier to clean. You have to choose the form before digging so you will have the exact shape and the depth of the hole. Now that you know how big, how deep, and where your pond is going to be, you may need to check with local housing authorities to ensure your plans conform to established zoning rules. Better safe than sorry! When this is complete, it’s time to dig. Trace the form of your pond on your lawn and measure how deep you will have to dig. Be sure to dig two inches deeper than the depth of the pond liner. To fit your liner properly, put two inches of sand in the hole before inserting your liner. This will provide a much better fit, while at the same time protecting the liner from rocks. (more…)

A term used to describe parts such as leaves that are arranged in pairs along a stem or shoot. See also alternate.

The botanical name for sword fern.

A Japanese water garden is a place of serenity. It is a place that one can go to appreciate nature, gather one’s thoughts, and relax to the humble sounds of nature. You can create this type of garden in your own back yard and enjoy it’s offerings for years to come.

Even if you live in an area that is crowded and noisy, if you have your own back yard you can design one of these gardens for your enjoyment. Using some natural sound barriers and placing the garden in the right place will be very important. You can use boulders to help create a barrier against the noise of traffic and neighbors. There are a variety of plants that can help you create a barrier as well, included various tall bushes. Unless you buy mature plants, remember that these bushes will take a few years to get big enough to provide a total barrier, but the mature plants will cost you a bit more.

If you have a larger piece of land for your garden you may not need to have a noise barrier. Unless you decide that you want to go ahead and create a barrier for your privacy, then you will not need to have one. (more…)

A term used to describe roses or petunias that produce clusters of small flowers.

Thinking about buying a greenhouse? There are many joys involved with owning a garden greenhouse.

If you are a person who loves to garden, greenhouse gardening is the hobby for you and a joy as well. You will have the ability to grow all kinds of things and even if you have a short growing season you will be able to garden much longer.

Think of the happiness you will experience when you walk into your own greenhouse and experience the beauty of growing plants and flowers. If you choose to grow flowers you will be able to have a bouquet or two in the house all year long.

The joy continues when you grow vegetables or fruit that can be brought to the table. Imagine having fresh tomatoes or vine-ripened cucumbers when the snow is flying. Put together a salad or add herbs to a homemade pizza sauce or salsa.

Enjoy making crafts? You can use the fruits of your labors to create wreathes, sachets and handmade greeting cards. Share these gifts with family members and friends. (more…)

A professional, licensed in most states, who is trained to design solutions for all kinds of landscaping situations, including jobs that require earth-moving, drainage, or major construction work as well as choosing which plants to grow.

As a species name, means “native to Korea” but is also used for plants from that general area. The Korean fir, Abies koreana, is one example. Many new plants have been introduced from Korea in recent years. Most are beautiful and hardy, but nurseries have not yet had time to propagate enough of them for widespread distribution.

Gardening is a great activity and it’s a real pleasure to enjoy the end product. It is nice to see your garden grow over the years and to see the result of all your creativity and hard work. A Japanese garden is no different, you would think, but in fact it is. There is a different kind of intrinsic beauty in Japanese garden ideas that you need to learn to appreciate. There are few people who see a Japanese garden and know in a second this is what they love and would like their own garden to look like. Most people will only enjoy the beauty of this type of design if they can find the internal peace to see each little element at its own. Both people can use some of the basic Japanese garden ideas we will take a look at in this article.

Many different Japanese garden ideas

There are of course many different Japanese garden ideas but there are some common grounds we call the basics. One of the basic principals is that almost all design ideas will all point to nature as being the most beautiful work of art of all. The Japanese garden is always designed with nature in mind, this means the garden should always reflect the things we see in nature. When we design a yard with this kind of design it might look unorganized and wild but when we take a closer look it is often perfectly in balance, a little replica of nature at its finest. And to some that is a type of perfection we cannot find in other types of garden design.

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The normal early dropping of some of the immature fruits of the apple or other fruit trees.