Plant Gardens 101

Wherever you live, and whatever the weather conditions in your area, your garden will have its own special climate – its microclimate – brought about by a number of factors working together. The factors include the orientation of your site, its protection from wind, whether it slopes or not, and the amount of sun and shade it receives each day. So as well as average conditions for your area, it is important to consider your site’s microclimate in its landscape design.

Any structures that you place on your site have an immediate effect on its microclimate. For example, a house creates a windbreak and alters the flow of air around and above it. There will be a warm area and a colder one created on either side of the building; and shade at certain times of the day. Walls and fences similarly have an effect on a site, as do natural features like trees and hedges. (more…)

Most gardens have an area that is best hidden from public view – perhaps it’s the place where you have your useful, but possibly unattractive, compost heap. Or it might be other utilities, such as a recycling bin or a clothesline, which you would prefer to keep hidden. Including a garden screen in your landscape design can be the answer. A screen can also be helpful if you want to provide a permanent windbreak against a prevailing wind, or it can make a practical alternative to a fence, giving a feeling of privacy without enclosing an area completely.

Screens can be of natural or manmade materials, or a combination of both. If you want, in the course of time, to make a natural screen from a row of tall plants, a temporary manmade screen can protect the plants as they grow and finally be removed. Such a screen could be made of an inexpensive material, like shadecloth. (more…)