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Planting a garden can be easier and more enjoyable with these gardening tips

Planting a garden, whether it is a vegetable plot or a flower bed, is an adventure where your creativity and patience are put to the test! You are directly responsible for the beautiful rose blooms or the delicious tomatoes that develop in this section of the land. Therefore to have the most success you need to determine where you plant!

The location of the garden should be determined by several factors: sunlight, soil conditions, water and wind exposure. Take notes on when this area of the yard is exposed to sunshine. This can determine which plants will thrive there. Test your soil to see if conditioners are needed to bring it up to optimum growing conditions. Pay attention to whether water collects in this section of the lawn. Some plants do well in soggy locations, but most need well-drained soil. Strong winds can dry out soil and plants, so try to locate the plot out of direct winds. Once you have determined where you will create your garden masterpiece you are ready to select plants!

Choose plants that will grow in your zone. Although you might have your heart set on a certain flower or vegetable, if your climate or garden location won’t support this choice, you will inevitably be disappointed. To avoid this, choose plants that are meant for your growing zone (ideally native plants), and disease-resistant and drought tolerant plants. Ask the employee at the nursery for assistance in selecting these. Be aware of the future size of each plant. A tree planted near a house will eventually provide shade, but it could also be a hazard during storms.

Plan out what flowering plants you would like for the seasons. Most perennials only bloom for a short time, so by mixing in some annuals there will be constant color in your garden. By having seasonal color you can change the look of your garden and create excitement and personality!

Now that you have your garden location selected and your plants purchased, you are ready to start digging! What tools are required to get things started? These include:

Rake: for seasonal cleanups and spreading/leveling soil

Trowel: for transplanting and weeding

Shovel: for digging, scooping, spreading compost and planting 

Hoe: for chopping weeds and tilling soils

Pruners: for clipping flowers and pruning trees

Garden Gloves: for protecting your hands from blisters and dirt 

Garden Hose: invest in a top-of-the-line hose that will resist kinking, is flexible and coils easily. Invest in high quality tools. They will last longer and are more durable than their cheaper counterparts.

Have fun starting a garden. Don’t try to create a masterpiece your first year-build up to it. Select a few choice plants that are more expensive. The rest can be less expensive, smaller complementary plants to round out your garden. Gardening is our nation’s number one leisure activity so go out and have a good time in your own piece of earth!

Article Source: http://organicgardener.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/how-to-start-a-garden-1173584.html

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What Is It?

Landscape design is the art of creating, designing, or modifying the features your garden or landscape to suit your aesthetic and horticultural sensibilities. Landscaping is often divided into hardscape design and softscape design. Landscape designers attempt to make your creative outdoorsy dreams come true.

Who Needs It?

Nature-lovers.

Benefits

Well-designed gardens reflect strong symmetry and structural forms. A qualified landscaper will tell you you’ll need to assimilate your backyard’s “hardscape” – the retaining walls, decks, pergolas, waterfalls, pools, and ponds – with the “softscape” of planting and turf. If you’re talking about a backyard in Brooklyn Heights, the chances are slim you’ll be incorporating pools, waterfalls, or ponds in your landscaping plans, unless, of course, you’re a billionaire bud of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, counseling the Department of Parks and Recreation.

Your softscape is dedicated to a horticultural “look,” say, one inspired by a Peruvian Jungle, a Mexican desert, or simply eye-catching native plants, placed at cool angles, with multiple and narcotic focal points. Zoom in on any famous landscape painter to cop a harmonious look. As you step out the backdoor, or though an arbor, then navigate a path through your backyard, it’s all about feeding the mind with different spaces, surfaces, and experiences.

For instance, in choosing plants or flowers, you may be drawn to color. Members of the Westchester Garden club might call a color strategy tacky, but with the guidance of a talented landscaper, you surmount their protestations. If you like blues, he or she might suggest Caryoptersus (“Snow Fairies) whose clumps of fuzzy green leaves are topped with blue curls in autumn. If you dig striped grass with burgundy inflorescences, your landscaper might lay down some Miscanthus Sinensis – or, “Gold Bar.” Into lavender? A knowledgeable landscaper’ll turn you on to Cercis Canadensis (“Hearts of Gold”) whose big, sexy heart-shaped leaves burst with lavender-red flowers in the spring.

(In these shady financial times, a shrewd landscaper will also know that suppliers are throwing away royal palms, oak trees, tabebuias – you name it. He’ll be able to pick up a lot of plants, trees, and flowers for 30 to 40 cents on the dollar.)

A wise landscaper will also hip you to the supreme importance of soil quality. They love the smell of dirt. Some landscaping mystics will tell you, there’s no real scientific process involved – it’s an inherited thing. But while raving about the wonder and mysteries of nature, you want a landscaper who knows his or her way around the scientific usefulness of organic fertilizers and sprays, including kelp meal, rock phosphate, green sand, humate, and compost. Not only is good soil paramount, so is proper watering, irrigation, and drainage. When the roots of your backyard’s population of trees, plants, and flowers go down, you want a nice thick soil layer that retains moisture, so everything thrives.

Some landscaping gurus will advocate laying down special tea microbrews to nourish plants and control foliar diseases. (Like the one developed by Norbert Viet.) The process breaks down organic matter, allows vitamin uptake to the plants, and prevents disease. Any discerning landscaper’ll enlist an army of earthworms, too. Dutch-born landscaping genius, Hendrikus Schraven, has refined an organic approach to soil health that includes carefully nurtured microorganisms.

If you’re living large, with a house to die for and money to burn, there are many high-end landscapers with a fleet of Bobcat loaders and excavators who’ll insert a picture-perfect waterfall into the scenery. One with ancient rocks and looks like it’s been part of the gorgeous landscape for at least a couple of centuries. These high-end landscapers are experiencing especially hard times, so if ruthlessness is a dominant personality trait, offer them half what the job normally costs. They’ll happily do tree houses, hot tubs, trellises, decks, bridges, and landslide restorations, too.

Risks

The biggest risk is suddenly not being able to afford the maintenance costs of your awesome oasis of Peruvian monstrosi, bougainvillea, and Alexandria palms. If this turns out to be an unhappy twist of fate, don’t fret. Replace your miniature rain forest with lettuce, beets and tomatoes – a.k.a. landscape reality – and enjoy saving money and eating well.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/landscape-design-the-art-of-eucalypts-daylilies-and-rock-gardens-1135357.html

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