Plant Gardens 101

Creating a garden on your patio or in your backyard brings beauty to a home that landscaping alone cannot obtain. A well-cared for garden will give back for years to come by providing beauty and a peaceful place to relax.

The first thing to evaluate when creating a garden is deciding how much space you can dedicate to it. Once you’ve found a good space that has both light and shade and isn’t in a place that could be easily ruined by children or pets, you are set to plant.

Next, you need to evaluate what plants will thrive and what garden ornaments will complement the space the best. Treat your garden like an extended room off your home. Choose themes, colors, patio fountains, and other accessories that will complement one another as a whole. (more…)

Remodeling and landscaping have become more popular projects than ever before, as people want to create a living space inside and out that is unique and complementary to their personalities– but it is also a pricey endeavor.

As the economy continues to affect pocketbooks, people have had to be even more creative with their patio and backyard revamping by choosing key pieces to make their space more inviting. Often times even a simple garden fountain can change the mood.
Garden fountains and waterfalls are made from a variety of materials such as stone, fiber glass, wood, copper, porcelain, ceramic and concrete.

Water fountains were first used in the Middle East as hieroglyphics on ancient Egyptian tombs have shown researchers. These pictures showed the use of garden fountains in home courtyards. The Mesopotamians used many fountains to decorate their formal gardens. (more…)

Installing large statuary in your garden in one unique way of complementing your landscape and make your outdoor spaces look just as good as the interior of your home. These statuaries are also fountains and to make things easier for you, consider placing them as close to the water source as possible. You must provide a firm base for the large statues that you choose and use flexible hose to connect the pump to the fountain. The resting place for the statuary must be level.

If you want to have a fountain in the middle of the statuary, you need to mount it on a pedestal designed just for that purpose. The pedestal will have a hollowed out section in the center where there will be a type of pond. In order for the fountain to function, you must make sure you keep this area filled with water. In this case, you can install the garden statuary anywhere in the garden because the water source comes from within. You can also make your own pedestal with a pool with bricks or stone and mortar. (more…)

All the plants belonging to this genus are of a low, shrub- by habit, with fine acicular foliage. None are natives ofAmerica. The fine varieties of our green-houses, with the exception of the common Erica Mediterranean are natives of the Cape of Good Hope, whence the gardener’s term, ” Cape Heaths.”

The erica will not thrive unless the soil is adapted to its peculiar nature; this is often very difficult to learn, and experience must sometimes be the teacher. The soil to obtain is one of a friable nature, full of vegetable fiber. We find in an old magazine the best directions we remember to have met in regard to choice of soil. We give them entire for the benefit of our readers: (more…)

Watering a Rock Garden

Watering a rock garden is a matter of the utmost importance, which nevertheless is scarcely mentioned in rock garden literature. InEngland, of course, this is not so vital a matter as with us. With less sun, more rain, and more moisture in the air, rock garden plants, especially alpines, are as apt to suffer from excessive moisture there as they are from lack of it here.

When speaking of the proper means of applying water, however, it is not in reference to either the watering can or a hose with the usual garden nozzle. The former takes too much time, and the latter applies water so rapidly that it will begin to run on the surface before the soil is saturated clear through.

But it is a simple matter to provide a mist like spray which will saturate the driest soil through and through without spattering mud on the smallest leaves or the most delicate blossoms, or causing the soil to run out from the most precarious rock crevices. There is a special type of greenhouse irrigation nozzle which applies the water in this fine mist like spray. (more…)

The Azalea Indica, or Chinese Azalea, is of Asiatic origin. The varieties are innumerable; but the most common and longest known variety is that from which others are but hybrids, Azalea Indica. It is a strong growing plant, with long, coarse, evergreen leaves, producing in clusters of three or more, at the end of the branches red flowers marked with dark spots. This plant may be grown in great perfection, and, as well as all the varieties, is admirably adapted for a window plant.

The habit is shrubby, and the flowers are produced in great profusion. A. Indica alba has white flowers, and is a fine old variety. A. Indica purpurea is a variety with blossoms of a light purple color; a profuse bloomer, and of rapid growth. There is also a double variety. A. Indica coccinea is bright scarlet. From these all the fine varieties of the greenhouses have been produced.

To grow the plants in perfection good drainage is essential. Fill the pot one quarter full of broken potsherds, then fill the soil to within half an inch of the top; soil, a dark peat three parts, one part of loam, one half part of silver sand. If the gardener plans on growing these plants among any garden waterfalls (http://www.garden-fountains.com/Detail.bok?no=79), the proper drainage is even more criticial. (more…)

This pretty flower is too little known. It is a native of Europe and Asia, some varieties being very abundant in Switzerland and Italy, and is to be found in almost every greenhouse. It is not uncommon upon European travels to notice these flowers overflowing out of flower pots on window garden after window garden.

It is of the easiest culture. Pot about the latter part of November, in a rich loam, with a dash of silver sand; an addition of about a spoonful of the old soot from a flue will increase the size and brilliancy of the flowers.

It must be well incorporated with the soil. Bits of charcoal, broken fine, serve the same purpose. Place the crown of the bulb just above the surface of the soil. The size of the pot must be determined by the size of the bulb; as a general rule, cyclamen do not require large pots. (more…)

Insects

The only ones troubling house plants are the green fly, the mealy bug, the scale, and the red spider.

The green fly is to be killed by a smoking with tobacco. Put the plant under a barrel with smoking tobacco; let it remain, say fifteen minutes; then give it a syringing.

Mealy bug is to be searched for and destroyed. Frequent sponging does much to keep down this pest.

Scale is to be treated in the same way. Warm soap-suds are peculiarly distasteful to the creature.

Red spider, which is seldom found on house plants, is nourished by a dry, warm atmosphere. Water is certain death. Keep the foliage syringed and atmosphere moist, and you will have no red spider. (more…)

This plant, of which the species are numerous, never receives the care and attention its beauty merits. Every green-house contains plants of the well-known Daphne odorata, sometimes called D. Indica and vulgarly known as “Daphne odora.” It is to this, plant we intend more particularly to confine our attention.

It is a green-house evergreen shrub, attaining the height of about four feet, remarkable for its long, dark, glossy, green leaves, and its terminal bunches of fragrant, white flowers. It is one of the few old-fashioned plants which the modern rage for novelties has not driven entirely out of cultivation.

It has only been thrust into the corners, and left to make its merits known by its beauty and fragrance. It is one of our most popular flowers, and as a window plant is unsurpassed, flourishing and blooming in situations where most plants would dwindle and die. It looks best when planted near outdoor statues (http://www.garden-fountains.com/Detail.bok?no=1063) or water features. (more…)

In most books on rock gardening, a large part of the space is devoted to the description of plants, and of individual varieties. This is as it should be, and to those who are taking up seriously this fascinating form of gardening, the acquisition of at least one or two of these larger volumes is by all means recommended. Anyone planning a rock garden should conduct more research than simply what this article contains.

Bulbs for a Rock Garden:

To one who thinks of bulbs in terms of Darwin tulips with three-foot stems, and the modern Giant Trumpet daffodils, in the spring garden, or of gladiolus and dahlias throughout the summer months, the rock garden would seem to offer no suitable place of residence for this important group of flowers. Many “complete” catalogs of rock garden plants contain never a whisper concerning bulbs, though often including shrubs, evergreens, and garden fountains (http://www.garden-fountains.com/Detail.bok?no=1071). (more…)

POTTING

All being ready, put the drainage in a suitable sized pot. Place first a suitable crock, or a large oyster shell over the hole; then lay a few large crocks upon that, and smaller upon those, so that the drainage may occupy about three fourths of an inch.

Place a thin layer of moss upon the drainage, and upon that a sprinkling of soot or charcoal dust; after that a thin layer of the rougher parts of the compost, and finally a layer of soil. Then turn the plant out of the old pot, pick out the old drainage, and loosen part of the old roots, spreading them over the new soil as much as possible.

Then see that the collar of the roots is just below the rim of the pot, and fill in around the ball with the fresh soil, pressing it down gently as it is put in. When the pot is full, give it a smart stroke or two upon the bench to settle the soil; level it neatly, leaving it about half an inch below the rim of the pot. This finishes the potting. (more…)

Under this title, we propose to treat of the plants usually known, in common parlance, as Geraniums, including both those horticulturally and botanically known as such, and Pelargoniums. Between these there are many minute and fanciful distinctions, which are only interesting to botanists, and need not concern the amateur. The true geraniums are herbaceous. For window gardening, their treatment must
be the same.

For the pelargoniums, we are chiefly indebted to the Cape of Good Hope; the geranium is found, in some of its varieties, in Asia, Europe, and America; two of the family, our “wild geraniums,” being familiar to us all as among the wild flowers of spring.

The scarlet, or horseshoe geranium, so called from the color of its flowers, and the dark marking of its leaves, is a very common and popular window plant. The rose, oak, and nutmeg geraniums are commonly grown for their fragrant leaves, and for their hardiness, as they can endure more hard usage than most plants. (more…)

For many people, their garden is their paradise. They dedicate many, many hours of hard work. They do it all on their own, from weeding to potting, designing and planning, attempting to turn their garden into their own place of sanctuary and peace. Garden decor not only sets the tone of your garden; it also gives your home awesome curb appeal. Your hard work may very well pay off too; landscaping often adds value to your home. It’s one of the first things that potential visitors notice, so why not let everyone into the enchanting world you’ve created?!

Garden decorations give gardens a customized theme. With the numerous options available regarding garden statues and outdoor water features, the garden is able to be altered and added to each year if desired. Putting together your garden’s current look doesn’t stop when the weather is getting cold either-it’s a creative adventure for many, and some of the most entertaining and fulfilling of times can be spent planning exactly where everything will go, and how it will coordinate. Will a Zen garden be built this year? Or just a simple scenic water garden? The beauty of it is that all the choices are yours. (more…)

With most kinds of gardening or landscaping, the gardener may exercise a rather wide range of choices when it comes to treatment; he may make his planting formal, informal, natural, highly decorative, or more picturesque.

With a rock garden, however, formal treatment is precluded. Neither the materials used in the construction of the rock garden, nor the plants which will occupy it, lend themselves to any formal arrangement. Straight lines, regular angles or curves, the trimmed plants, statuary, fountains, and all that sort of thing are so foreign to the whole conception of the rock garden that any attempt to introduce them would appear ludicrous. A rock garden is the most natural kind of garden there is, chiefly designed to be constructed with materials that are already present. A lot of fuss is just not appropriate or necessary

One may, however, choose between a naturalistic treatment and what may be termed “the Japanese style,” the chief difference being that in the Japanese style an effort is made to reproduce a miniature landscape. This requires an excellent sense of proportion and a knowledge and use of a wide variety of plant material. The satisfactory execution of a Japanese rock garden is much more difficult than that of a rock garden which will appear satisfactorily natural looking. Unless the services of a landscape architect are available, it is better to try the simpler form first. (more…)