To Landscape Or Not To Landscape?
If you have more than a small town garden, then landscaping your garden will probably be one of your considerations. If you have just acquired the property, or you think that it is time for a garden make-over, there are methods of going about it. The easiest technique of going about planning a garden, is to first take a good look at the landscape of your garden. This can be difficult if the garden is established and in full bloom.
Therefore, it can be better to delay until autumn or winter, so that you can see the true lie of the land. You could make a plan of the garden on graph paper and take a lot of photos too. Identify the photos on the back of them and relate them to the grid on your graph paper. There may be bumps and hollows, potholes, rocky areas and even a marsh or a pond to deal with.
These are almost certainly natural features and if you want to change them, you will have to tackle the fundamental cause. The feature is only the symptom. Like freckles or spots! If you look at the state of affairs in this way, it makes planning simpler.
For example, a rocky patch probably means that the Earth is throwing stones up gradually and if you want to clean it up, you will be picking up stones for the remainder of your life. Likewise, if your wet patch is the result of natural drainage from higher ground, you will have to drain it and put in permanent drainage, because it is not going to stop raining for you.
So, you can either work with nature or you will be working against it for the rest of your life. Either that or paying someone else to do it for you. Another point is that the wildlife that uses your area does so because of how it is. If you change the landscape, your current range of wildlife might move on or just die. A lot depends on how much land we are talking about, but in general, I would say that the larger the plot, the more you should leave it alone.
On the other hand, you can add features more easily than remove them. For instance, if you have an area with poor soil, you could improve it with compost or put a pond there. Shade and existing fences or sheds should also be noted on your graph paper, although being man-made, these are simpler to remove or alter.
Next you should decide what type of garden you want, within the constraints of the existing landscape, how much work you are prepared to put into it and how much money you want to spend on it. Enhancing the natural features of the land is the easiest way of landscaping your garden.
If you have a swampy area, why not put a low wall around it and turn it into a pond? If you have a rocky patch, why not collect up the stones and build a rockery? If you have a couple of trees, try growing wisteria, honeysuckle or vines through them.
If you are in the shade, buy flowers that prefer the shade and vice-versa. It is a effort to go against nature and unless you have a good cause to do it, it is not really worthwhile. Then build a patio or deck and sit outside and enjoy all the landscaping that you have saved yourself in your garden.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with outdoor heat lamp. If you are interested in patio heaters too, please click through to Residential Patio Heaters.
How To Create A New Garden | creating new garden
The question when you are thinking about making a garden is: do you have a choice of where to put it. For example, you may have a very big garden or you may be looking for an allotment from the local council. However, if you do not have a choice, then you will have to choose the kind of plants you want for your garden according to its location and condition.
If, however, you are fortunate enough to have a choice, then the chief consideration is the sun. In deed, even more significant that that is what type of plants you want to grow. If you want flowers that prefer the sun or if you like plants that cannot bear it, then the location of the garden is vital.
In the northern hemisphere, the majority of gardeners would pick a south-facing garden, if they had the choice, but not everyone. Some gardeners are interested in marsh plants or woodland plants, for instance. If you do make the majority choice and go for a south-facing garden, then your planting beds should run from north to south, because that way they will receive maximum exposure to the sun’s rays.
If, however, you cannot get a south-facing garden, but you can get one facing southeast, then your flower beds should run north-west to south-east for the greatest exposure to the sun. Other directions can be worked out in a similar fashion.
The plan, whichever way your garden is facing, is to get the sun shining as near to 50% on each side of the plants as possible. The only real way of gaining success in this matter is by having a south-facing garden in the northern hemisphere or a north-facing garden in the southern hemisphere.
When you have worked out the best place to put your garden, or which way it is facing, you should start designing it. This can best be carried out on graph paper. The first step is to draw a scale diagram of your garden. Once you have done that, you should prepare the ground by either clearing it of rubbish or clearing the scrub.
If your garden has decent turf, plan on your graph paper where you want your flower beds to be and draw them in. Then cut these areas out of your garden.
Depending how much area you have set aside for plants, you can now either dig it over or rotovate it. Whichever means you choose, do it to the best of your ability, because once you have flowers and bushes in your garden, you will not find it so straightforward again. Dig plenty of manure into the earth while you are about it.
Now that you have a decent environment for your future plants, you can go about choosing your plants. This has to be done with the orientation of your garden in mind, if you want to make the most of the space that you have available to you.
If you want to moderate a south-facing garden, this can easily be done by adding trees and bushes to provide shade, but it is not easy to heat up a cold north-facing garden.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on a number of subjects, but is at present involved with visual comfort lighting. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Outdoor Wall Lamps.
How To Care For Your Fish Pond
Do you like the sound of moving water? Do you find the sound soothing? Well, you can easily produce the sound of moving water in your own garden. You can put in a fish pond or a water garden. So, if you think that your garden requires landscaping, it might be a good idea to think about a fish pond or water garden.
People think that a fish pond takes lot of looking after, but that is not necessarily the case. The fact is that the bigger the fish pond, the less effort you have to put into it. This is because a large pond can create its own ecosystem, whereas a small fish pond requires help.
The ways that you can help a small fish pond be a good environment for your fish are as follows:
Pond Filters – use a pond filter with a good pump. Do not forget that you could get a solar powered pump. It will save on the environment and on your wallet. You should use a pond filter on a small pond, because the ecosystem cannot deal with all the plant waste of a small ornamental pond on its own. A pond pump will supply the filtration system and a waterfall or fountain if you wish.
Your pond filtration system should be left running all day, but you can not just set it and forget it. Check that the pump is running daily and keep the filter as clean as necessary for it to do its job. You may find that you have to clean it two or three times a week in the summer and autumn but only once a week in the winter and spring.
Leaf Netting: stop leaves from clogging up your pond in the autumn. The net should be suspended a foot or so above the pond to stop autumn leaves falling into the water and rotting.
Feeding: all fish should be given fish food, not bread or scraps. Some fish need specific fish food in order to maintain their colour. When you buy your fish, the salesperson should inform you what they eat. In general, the larger the pond the less hassle feeding becomes as they will eat natural food like insects, grubs, larvae and flies.
Fish need less food in the winter when they become semi-dormant and live off the fat stores that they built up in the warmer months, so give food often in the summer and autumn, but less often in the winter. You must check to see if surplus food is left floating on the surface.
Winter: make sure that there is a hole in the ice so that the water can take in oxygen and the fish can feed if they wish to. You can buy a floating de-icer or some people float a round football in a hoola-hoop, which seems to work unless the temperature gets very low.
In fact, the hoola-hoop is a good idea all year round really. If you place the food in the hoop, it stays in one place and you can see if you have given too much. It also makes a nice site to see all the fish feeding in a group.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently concerned with water garden pumps. If you are interested in a Solar Powered Pond Pump, please go to our web site right away for some extra special deals.
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