Good Planning For A Good December Garden
Christmas will soon be here and you will be wanting to make up Christmas arrangements and Christmas decorations. It’s so much more fun for most of us if we can go out into our own gardens and gather these materials. There is no reason why every one of us can’t grow them.
To be sure, some of the more tender broadleafed evergreens such as cherry laurel and Chinese holly can be grown only in the milder parts of this area.
We can all grow (even though you may think you can’t) hardy strains of boxwood, firethorn, wintercreeper (Ettonymus) , Japanese holly, American holly and if you will acidify the soil-rhododendron. And even in the most severe regions it is surprising how many protected spots can be found where allegedly tender plants will prove hardy. It is amazing what a little winter sun protection and wind protection will do to carry through these doubtful plants. Plan to plant them next spring.
This is the time of the year, up until snow comes, when we particularly en joy touches of evergreens around our yard. The evergreen ground covers really pay for themselves for the enjoyment they give us. Japanese spurge (Pachysandra), periwinkle ( Vinca), wintercreeper (Euonymus) and English ivy are all delightful in winter. Although it is too late to risk planting them now you can look out of all the windows of your home and decide where you would like to see them growing next year at this time. Personally I prefer Japanese spurge and English ivy, although in the warmer areas both of these may sun scald if not planted in the shade.
This is a good time to look around your neighborhood at the patches of English ivy growing both as ground covers and on the sides of houses. And then next spring along in April look at them again. Those that still look wonderful are the ones you should try to get starts of. I still feel that we haven’t scratched the surface of possibilities in selecting strains of English ivy that will grow under almost any sort of condition. That patch of Romanian ivy that is taking the hot boiling sun in St. Louis, Missouri is just one example of what tough strains are available.
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Principles Of Garden Design – Useful Ideas
Design is a frequently misconstrued word. It can easily be represented as the forming of themes and features into a sound and simplistic whole. Overleaf is a perfect model of a well-designed small garden (Jon and Verna’s garden in the television series) which combined a number of standard principles of good design. Over-complication is the opposite of good design but it is something from which far too many gardens suffer.
Simplicity brings with it a level of constraint and this in turn imposes a sequence of planning that not only prevents disarray but gives the finished composition continuity. In basic terms, design is the creation of patterns and those patterns can be organized and planned in just the same way as you would tackle interior decoration inside the home.
One’s house is a reasonable starting point for any garden design as the building already has an architectural model which should be reflected in the paved areas, paths or patio that surround it. Here you can use a series of complex rectangles that project from the corners of the house or pick up the line of doors or windows. Crisp rectangular precast slabs, solid pieces of natural stone, or the pattern of brick paving, will all be perfect for reinforcing that connection between house and garden.
Different factors can come into play here too, a color outline inside the house can be retained out along an bordering wall, or plants can be grouped on either side of the glass of patio doors, disguising and softening the division between inside and out.
Disjointed materials like crazy paving tend to be visually disturbed and while they may be fine for an informal sitting area towards the bottom of the garden, moderated by grass and planting, they are often too flaring to adjoin the building.
Just increasing distance from the house brings informality. In the middle and more distant parts of the garden you can start to use strong flowing curves that not only lead the eye away from those almost inevitable rectangular boundaries but furnish a real feeling of movement which can in turn make a feeling of greater space.
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Family Determines Garden Design
Your family is, perhaps, the chief personal factor in determining what kind of garden you should have. A young couple with no children, or perhaps just one or two, should be able to estimate their future requirements and they should plan their garden accordingly. On the other hand, if the children have grown beyond the sandbox stage, are about to marry, or are married and have established their own homes, a different kind of garden will be in order. Whatever the circumstances, your family and your way of life will have a direct bearing on the nature and design of your garden.
Besides the size and age of your family, you will have to analyze the kind of life you and your family lead. If you like to entertain large groups of friends in the garden, the outdoor living area will dominate the property. But if you do not entertain, extensively, you can reduce this area to devote more space to a larger vegetable or cut flower garden. The extent of the area devoted to vegetables might well be affected by your budget. Growing your own small fruits, bush fruits, and a variety of vegetables can substantially cut your grocery bills.
You will also have to decide what facilities your garden should have for family comfort. In the northern section of the country, where the summers are neither long nor hot, it is a good idea to design the planting of majestic palm so that maximum sunlight will come into the garden. Farther south, and to the southwest, shade is a prime consideration and should be provided for by your plan wherever possible. In the central prairie states or the Texas Panhandle, where the wind is very strong, the arrangement of windbreaks, either large or small, will be an important consideration.
For those who live in a crowded residential area close to business and industrial sections one of the important items will be adequate screening of your property for privacy. It is also good to plant majestic to have a division for your property.
Finally, you should make provision for the sports you and your children enjoy. An area for badminton, basketball, frisbee, or the like, will add immeasurably to the family’s enjoyment of the garden. This will, of course, dictate in part the layout of your garden.
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