This post about how to landscape your back yard to look great, is intended to give you some basic ideas as how to implement a project that will be not only beautiful and attractive, but also practical.
If you are considering very seriously to achieve a nice landscape that will provide comfort, relaxation, beauty and convenience, start by stepping outside from your house in the back yard. Since you have this new idea in mind, you are about to look to the whole situation with a surveying eye, with a different perspective, not just to take some fresh air, but like one who is about to start doing something very important.
Look at the present situation of the yard, and just try to imagine what kind of elements it needs to make a drastic change in the whole picture. Now there is no need to get intimidated, because it's not that complicated and it can be done. Let's just relax and get organized, step by step.
To bring these new ideas and elements to life, start by dotting them down on a sheet of paper or a note pad. If your back yard is on a slope, locate an area where you might want to install a retaining wall, for a nice little terrace, to place a table with a few chairs. You might also want to consider installing some steps to that area for easy access as well as appearance.
Weather the yard is in a slope or flat, it does not matter, except that each situation requires a different approach. But what you want to consider first, is to divide the yard in spaces, for practicality and other considerations such as beauty, convenience, entertainment, socializing, playing, relaxing, resting, etc.
It does not have to be too polished, but appealing enough for entertainment, with a friendly atmosphere and a friendly environment.
After you divide the back yard in separate sections, consider some essential elements that will make it work, and looks good to the eye of the beholder. No matter in what part of the property you are, it should look great from every angle, as well as practical.
Consider to install a brick patio, surrounded by your preferred shrubs and blooming flowers. Add some nice clay pottery of different sizes and shapes for accent and focal points around your patio. Set on the brick area some nice garden and patio furniture, for comfortable seating and dining area. From here install some stepping stones that lead to a gazebo, or a pavilion, to relax in the shade, in an intimate space.
As we go along, you will realize how nicely is your back yard landscape taking place. It is coming to life as we continue to add some essential elements. It will be awesome as we add and complete each new element.
Find a nice sunny area and plant a beautiful vegetable garden, and one for a flower garden of your choice. If you have children it will provide a great resource of educational activities, to cultivate in them the beauty of nature and recreation in the outdoors. It is healthy, beneficial, and it also builds character and a love for the environment. Gardening is wonderful.
We should never neglect to assign a special area for the children to play in safety, and give them the liberty to be in their own little playing universe. You can install a swing set, a sand box, slides, etc.
If you have a place to build a deck, with some nice benches on it, or garden furniture, surrounded with shrubs and small trees, will create a beautiful element as a main focal point in the yard. A place to entertain your guests and friends with some delicious barbecue, and other fine foods and drinks. Let the good times roll!
Divide the spaces with some trellises, hedges, retaining walls, small trees, for a sense of intimacy or delimitation of use. Like in your home, the same way as the rooms are divided, except that in the yard are wider and in the open air. Your celling is the sky, your walls are made of live plants, or a trellis, or a chain-link-fence, or a line of small trees, or some taller growing shrubs, etc.
Another area of relaxing could be a spa, hot-tub, swimming pool, a miniature fish pond, etc.
Consider planting along the fence some ornamental trees, like Crape Myrtles, Althea the Rose of Sharon, and other blooming trees, that will offer besides the beautiful blooms, the sense of enclosure, of delimitation of your property, your outdoor spaces.
For a more dramatic effect of soothing and appealing atmosphere consider installing some low voltage lighting. It is a very attractive and important element in landscaping. This will create an astonishing view of the whole picture at night. Strategically placed to bring out some focal points, and gives the impression of a fairy land at night.
Place some benches strategically on the side of a walkway, and have some spot light point to some garden statue, for an even greater impression.
After you have pretty much implemented all the elements so that each will serve its purpose, you can see that how to landscape a back yard to look great, was not really that hard, was it? By taking one step at a time, and with a careful planing, it can surely be easily achieved.
Now it is time for action, and to get your hands dirty. Just do it! It's a lot of fun.
Until next time,
Happy gardening!
Mike Borlovan
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
How To Grow Crape Myrtles The Easy Way
Growing Crape Myrtles, tips and ideas, is intended to provide information to the home owners and gardening and landscaping enthusiasts.
A popular tree in the South, the Crape Myrtle (Lagerostroemia indica) is widely used in the landscapes, due to the long blooming period. It blooms from mid-summer until late fall, sometimes until frost.
In the autumn before the Crape Myrtle is dropping the leaves, the color is turning reddish, and the exfoliating of the bark is simply beautiful, and very attractive.
Even so that it is so popular in the South, in the last few decades, with the introduction and development of new cultivars, the demand for the Crape Myrtle is expanding towards the Northern states, and it is used more and more in landscape projects by the professionals as well as the home owners.
The Crape Myrtles are planted along driveways, walkways, along fences, in group planting, accent focal points, and anyway you can think of. They are easy to grow, easy to propagate, and once established it does not require too much care.
They come in very many different color blooms, but the main ones are the red, white, pink, purple, lavender, some of the varieties in darker or lighter color tones.
Cultivating:
The Crape Myrtle can be grown as a single trunk, or multi-trunk. To grow it as a single trunk, in tree form, you want to prune all the branches and leave only one as the main trunk. Usually you want to keep the one that is stronger and straight. If you prefer the multi-trunk, then leave all the branches to grow, and later prune only the ones that are not well developed. Just keep the strongest ones.
If it happens that you have a single trunk Crape Myrtle, and you want to change the shape to a multi-trunk tree, you can do that, very easily. Just have a little patience, and wait until next January or February, while the trees are still dormant, and cut the trunk all the way down, and leave about 2 to 3 inches from the ground level. The tree will start growing multiple trunks.
The pruning should be done while dormant, usually in January or February, before they start to put out buds. So, that is a good time to shape them any way you like.
Once the Crape Myrtles are well established, do not be afraid to prune them drastically. If you want them to grow more vigorous, you should cut them back, mostly where they are branching out. Just cut all the limbs to about 2 to 3 inches from the main trunk(s), and the little branches that are not well developed, and you want to cut them off.
The Crape Myrtle can grow about 20 to 25 feet tall, and they grow pretty fast.
They prefer full sun and a well air circulated area to keep them from getting powdery mildew. If it happens to get some powdery mildew, it is not a big problem. It comes and goes. Usualy the rain will wash it off, and the wind will play a great roll, too, to make it dissipate faster.
Too much shade will inhibit the blooming, and the flowers will not develop as they should. So full sun is essential, and the display is more spectacular in the landscape.
Keep them moist but not soggy. Once established they can pretty much tolerate some drought. If the soil is more alkaline, you can lower the pH to about 5.5 to 6.00, by mulching around the trees with pine-straw, to make it a little more acidic.
If the soil is rather poor in nutrients, fertilize lightly with a well balanced fertilizer. I prefer the slow released fertilizer, like Osmocote or Nursery Special. Apply a top dress, around the trunk of the trees. It always worked better for me. The flowers are more vivid and vibrant in color tones.
When planting the Crape Myrtles, like any other tree or shrubs, dig the hole at least one and a half the size of the root ball, and just slightly less deeper than it was in the original container when you have bought it. It is better to be a little above the line of the soil, to allow the water to drain away from the base of the tree.
Many diseases and other rot and fungus problems occur when the plants are planted deeper then they should.
Fill the hole with the dirt that you just dug out, and press around to eliminate any air pockets from around the roots. Water well and deep. Just a sprinkle on the top of the soil will never be enough! Mulch with about 2 to 3 inches of pine-straws to retain moisture, and keep it moist until the tree is getting established. After that the Crape Myrtle does not require too much care.
Propagation:
The Crape Myrtle is pretty easy to propagate.
1) By seeds, that you can pick from the pods in autumn, before the seed falls on the ground. Use some fine peat-moss based potting soil, with some micro-nutrients blend, and fill some 2 to 4 inch pots with the soil, and sow one seed in a pot. Keep evenly moist until it germinates. Keep them indoors in a place where there is some good light, preferable close to a window. If you have a little greenhouse, that is even better. Once they germinate, you can grow them in the same pot until spring, when you can plant them outside, after the danger of late frost is past.
2) By rooted cuttings. Cut some new young branches (semi-hardwood is preferable), and after you cut the lower end slanted with a sharp knife, pinch off the leaves from the portion of the stem that you stick in the potting soil. Pinch off the tips, and leave only 4 or 5 leaves. For best results, the cuttings (the stems), should be no more than 5 to 6 inches long.
Once you stick them in the soil, press around the cutting to eliminate any air pockets and to stabilize to little cutting stem.
Since the new cuttings have no roots yet, they feed through the leaves. Now sprinkle the leaves several times a day, with a fine mist, or even a spray bottle should do. Make sure that the soil is wet enough, so that the little cuttings are forced to reach down for moisture, thus growing the roots faster.
Some cultivars are more resistant than others on powdery mildew. But that is coming and going. Just keep an eye on the aphids, that leave a kind of a sticky excretions on the leaves that attracts the sooty mold fungus. If left un controlled it can become so thick as not to allow the plant to have its photothynseses, and that can create some problems, to the point that the Crape Myrtle will deteriorate.
The Aphids can be controlled by spraying with a dish washing soap solution mixed in water, and applied heavily on the affected leaves. Then after a while just rinse the soap solution off. An area populated and active with lady bugs and lace wings (those green beneficial bugs) could help a lot! They feed heavily on the aphids.
As you can see, the Crape Myrtle is easy to grow and it does not require too much care. It will give you many years of enjoyment, blooming year after year as well as improving and elevating the value and the image of your home.
In my many years of experience in the Nursery and Landscaping field, I had many projects that worked out very nicely by planting Crape Myrtles.
So, what are you waiting for? Let's get our hands dirty, it is good for you!
Until next time, Happy Gardening!
Mike Borlovan
A popular tree in the South, the Crape Myrtle (Lagerostroemia indica) is widely used in the landscapes, due to the long blooming period. It blooms from mid-summer until late fall, sometimes until frost.
In the autumn before the Crape Myrtle is dropping the leaves, the color is turning reddish, and the exfoliating of the bark is simply beautiful, and very attractive.
Even so that it is so popular in the South, in the last few decades, with the introduction and development of new cultivars, the demand for the Crape Myrtle is expanding towards the Northern states, and it is used more and more in landscape projects by the professionals as well as the home owners.
The Crape Myrtles are planted along driveways, walkways, along fences, in group planting, accent focal points, and anyway you can think of. They are easy to grow, easy to propagate, and once established it does not require too much care.
They come in very many different color blooms, but the main ones are the red, white, pink, purple, lavender, some of the varieties in darker or lighter color tones.
Cultivating:
The Crape Myrtle can be grown as a single trunk, or multi-trunk. To grow it as a single trunk, in tree form, you want to prune all the branches and leave only one as the main trunk. Usually you want to keep the one that is stronger and straight. If you prefer the multi-trunk, then leave all the branches to grow, and later prune only the ones that are not well developed. Just keep the strongest ones.
If it happens that you have a single trunk Crape Myrtle, and you want to change the shape to a multi-trunk tree, you can do that, very easily. Just have a little patience, and wait until next January or February, while the trees are still dormant, and cut the trunk all the way down, and leave about 2 to 3 inches from the ground level. The tree will start growing multiple trunks.
The pruning should be done while dormant, usually in January or February, before they start to put out buds. So, that is a good time to shape them any way you like.
Once the Crape Myrtles are well established, do not be afraid to prune them drastically. If you want them to grow more vigorous, you should cut them back, mostly where they are branching out. Just cut all the limbs to about 2 to 3 inches from the main trunk(s), and the little branches that are not well developed, and you want to cut them off.
The Crape Myrtle can grow about 20 to 25 feet tall, and they grow pretty fast.
They prefer full sun and a well air circulated area to keep them from getting powdery mildew. If it happens to get some powdery mildew, it is not a big problem. It comes and goes. Usualy the rain will wash it off, and the wind will play a great roll, too, to make it dissipate faster.
Too much shade will inhibit the blooming, and the flowers will not develop as they should. So full sun is essential, and the display is more spectacular in the landscape.
Keep them moist but not soggy. Once established they can pretty much tolerate some drought. If the soil is more alkaline, you can lower the pH to about 5.5 to 6.00, by mulching around the trees with pine-straw, to make it a little more acidic.
If the soil is rather poor in nutrients, fertilize lightly with a well balanced fertilizer. I prefer the slow released fertilizer, like Osmocote or Nursery Special. Apply a top dress, around the trunk of the trees. It always worked better for me. The flowers are more vivid and vibrant in color tones.
When planting the Crape Myrtles, like any other tree or shrubs, dig the hole at least one and a half the size of the root ball, and just slightly less deeper than it was in the original container when you have bought it. It is better to be a little above the line of the soil, to allow the water to drain away from the base of the tree.
Many diseases and other rot and fungus problems occur when the plants are planted deeper then they should.
Fill the hole with the dirt that you just dug out, and press around to eliminate any air pockets from around the roots. Water well and deep. Just a sprinkle on the top of the soil will never be enough! Mulch with about 2 to 3 inches of pine-straws to retain moisture, and keep it moist until the tree is getting established. After that the Crape Myrtle does not require too much care.
Propagation:
The Crape Myrtle is pretty easy to propagate.
1) By seeds, that you can pick from the pods in autumn, before the seed falls on the ground. Use some fine peat-moss based potting soil, with some micro-nutrients blend, and fill some 2 to 4 inch pots with the soil, and sow one seed in a pot. Keep evenly moist until it germinates. Keep them indoors in a place where there is some good light, preferable close to a window. If you have a little greenhouse, that is even better. Once they germinate, you can grow them in the same pot until spring, when you can plant them outside, after the danger of late frost is past.
2) By rooted cuttings. Cut some new young branches (semi-hardwood is preferable), and after you cut the lower end slanted with a sharp knife, pinch off the leaves from the portion of the stem that you stick in the potting soil. Pinch off the tips, and leave only 4 or 5 leaves. For best results, the cuttings (the stems), should be no more than 5 to 6 inches long.
Once you stick them in the soil, press around the cutting to eliminate any air pockets and to stabilize to little cutting stem.
Since the new cuttings have no roots yet, they feed through the leaves. Now sprinkle the leaves several times a day, with a fine mist, or even a spray bottle should do. Make sure that the soil is wet enough, so that the little cuttings are forced to reach down for moisture, thus growing the roots faster.
Some cultivars are more resistant than others on powdery mildew. But that is coming and going. Just keep an eye on the aphids, that leave a kind of a sticky excretions on the leaves that attracts the sooty mold fungus. If left un controlled it can become so thick as not to allow the plant to have its photothynseses, and that can create some problems, to the point that the Crape Myrtle will deteriorate.
The Aphids can be controlled by spraying with a dish washing soap solution mixed in water, and applied heavily on the affected leaves. Then after a while just rinse the soap solution off. An area populated and active with lady bugs and lace wings (those green beneficial bugs) could help a lot! They feed heavily on the aphids.
As you can see, the Crape Myrtle is easy to grow and it does not require too much care. It will give you many years of enjoyment, blooming year after year as well as improving and elevating the value and the image of your home.
In my many years of experience in the Nursery and Landscaping field, I had many projects that worked out very nicely by planting Crape Myrtles.
So, what are you waiting for? Let's get our hands dirty, it is good for you!
Until next time, Happy Gardening!
Mike Borlovan
Saturday, August 14, 2010
How To Landscape Your Yard Ideas
"How to landscape your yard ideas", is meant to help you decide to implement the most important elements, that you can live with, on a small budget. A landscape that you do-it-yourself, should not be expensive, and yet beautiful enough to raise the value of your property as a whole.
You might want to start with your front yard first, or the back yard. It is your decision to make. The front yard is where the first impression is made by the guests and visitors, or by those who just passing by. Nevertheless, a landscape if it is done right, it could very much raise the value of your home.
You want to make it as beautiful and attractive as possible, and with some common sense, and step by step implementation of some basic landscape principles, it can be done, even if you never tried your hand before on a such a job. Did I say a job? O, yes, it is a job, but it will be worth every penny once you finished it.
Like on any successful landscape project, you need a plan if you want to do it right. And since you are reading this article about how to landscape your yard, it tells me that you are serious about doing it.
So, let's get started!
We will start with a sheet of drawing paper. But first take a tape measure and a note pad, and make a sketch of your house. Then measure the sections that you want to landscape in length and width, and put down the dimensions on your note pad. Once you have the sketches and the dimensions of the areas that you want to landscape, go inside and start drawing the plan. If you have a digital camera, take a few picks from different angles, load them in your file, and print them out. This could help you a lot to have a clear vision of what you need to do, and how is it going to look when you are finished. It will help your imagination, and you will realize that you have some hidden talent stored in there, that you probably never thought you had.
Assuming that you want to start with the front of the house, so concentrate on this part first.
Let's start with some basic elements, that will help you to envision the big picture. We are going to use the "framing" element of the front landscape. Mark the two extreme corners of your house with one tree on each side. At the entry way of your home, mark both sides with a tree (or topiary), and you have your front landscape pretty much framed.
Mark the size and the shape of the areas you want to landscape. Draw the lines (I have mostly used curve lines whenever possible, for a more aesthetic effect), and draw some loops at the two extreme corners of the front of your house, around the frame trees, and leave enough room to plant three shrubs in front of the trees as a group planting. You can do the same group planting with three shrubs in front of each tree or topiary at the entry way. This is going to look nice.
Next, select some shrubs of your choosing, for the foundation planting. The number of the shrubs should be according to the space and size you have available. Keep account of the distance between the plants, to plant them apart of each other. Mark everything on your sheet of paper, as your landscape is getting shape, slowly but surely.
You might want to have some low maintenance evergreen shrubs, like: Boxwood, Compacta Holly, Indian Hawthorne, etc. In order to look good from the start, the size of the plants should be about 3 or 5 gallon size shrubs, for an instant landscape.
In front of the foundation planting, think of some lower growing shrubs, like: Youpon, Soft Touch, Blue Pacific junipers, etc. You want to plant this second row staggered, so that the foundation shrubs next to the wall can be seen, and for a nicer design. They will blend in beautiful!
For the border, you can plant some ornamental grasses, like: Liriope big blue, Variegated Liriope, Aztec Grass, etc. If you like blooming plants, you can select and plant some bedding plants of the kind you like.
The plan for your front of the house is pretty much it. Now look around the rest of the front yard, and see where you want to plant e few ornamental trees, for some accent planting. Draw a nice circle bed around the accent trees, to plant some shrubs or blooming perennials or annuals.
In front of your yard, next to the street, think about some Blue Hydrangea, or Bridal Wreath, Pittosporum, Mock Orange, Jasmine, or any other plants that you prefer. Plant them along the width of your property as a statement. Let everyone who passes by know; "Hey, we love and care about our home!"
And don't forget the Mail Box. A nice rectangular, square, or circle flower bed will make a great improvement!
The plan for the front yard is pretty much implemented, and now it is time to apply it on the ground and prepare the soil for planting.
Take a flexible water hose and lay it down in the shape of your planting space, and mark the curve lines with landscape spray, once you have the plan the way you like it.
Prepare the ground in the spaces you want to landscape. Clean them of any rocks or debris, turn the soil with a spade, add some composted matter if you need to improve the nutrition of the soil.
Buy your plants from your local Nursery or Garden center, and set them on the landscaping space, each according to your plan. Move them around as much as necessary until you are fully satisfied with what you see. Once you like it, start digging the holes one at a time. Start with the trees that will frame your landscape, and then with the group planting around them.
Next, plant the foundation shrubs, then the staggered shrubs in the second row, and then the border. Once planted, water well and deeply so the water penetrates down to the roots.
Now is time to mulch. Once the mulching is done, your whole landscape will look stunning! You should be proud of a job well done! Take good and loving care of your plants, and as they just moved in, make them feel like at home! They will reward you with their beauty, fragrance, and fresh air, for many years to come!
And do you now what? They never talk back!
In the next article, we will talk about the back yard, how to do your landscaping on limited budget. So, come back often to walk you and me, together through the whole project.
Until next time,
Mike Borlovan
You might want to start with your front yard first, or the back yard. It is your decision to make. The front yard is where the first impression is made by the guests and visitors, or by those who just passing by. Nevertheless, a landscape if it is done right, it could very much raise the value of your home.
You want to make it as beautiful and attractive as possible, and with some common sense, and step by step implementation of some basic landscape principles, it can be done, even if you never tried your hand before on a such a job. Did I say a job? O, yes, it is a job, but it will be worth every penny once you finished it.
Like on any successful landscape project, you need a plan if you want to do it right. And since you are reading this article about how to landscape your yard, it tells me that you are serious about doing it.
So, let's get started!
We will start with a sheet of drawing paper. But first take a tape measure and a note pad, and make a sketch of your house. Then measure the sections that you want to landscape in length and width, and put down the dimensions on your note pad. Once you have the sketches and the dimensions of the areas that you want to landscape, go inside and start drawing the plan. If you have a digital camera, take a few picks from different angles, load them in your file, and print them out. This could help you a lot to have a clear vision of what you need to do, and how is it going to look when you are finished. It will help your imagination, and you will realize that you have some hidden talent stored in there, that you probably never thought you had.
Assuming that you want to start with the front of the house, so concentrate on this part first.
Let's start with some basic elements, that will help you to envision the big picture. We are going to use the "framing" element of the front landscape. Mark the two extreme corners of your house with one tree on each side. At the entry way of your home, mark both sides with a tree (or topiary), and you have your front landscape pretty much framed.
Mark the size and the shape of the areas you want to landscape. Draw the lines (I have mostly used curve lines whenever possible, for a more aesthetic effect), and draw some loops at the two extreme corners of the front of your house, around the frame trees, and leave enough room to plant three shrubs in front of the trees as a group planting. You can do the same group planting with three shrubs in front of each tree or topiary at the entry way. This is going to look nice.
Next, select some shrubs of your choosing, for the foundation planting. The number of the shrubs should be according to the space and size you have available. Keep account of the distance between the plants, to plant them apart of each other. Mark everything on your sheet of paper, as your landscape is getting shape, slowly but surely.
You might want to have some low maintenance evergreen shrubs, like: Boxwood, Compacta Holly, Indian Hawthorne, etc. In order to look good from the start, the size of the plants should be about 3 or 5 gallon size shrubs, for an instant landscape.
In front of the foundation planting, think of some lower growing shrubs, like: Youpon, Soft Touch, Blue Pacific junipers, etc. You want to plant this second row staggered, so that the foundation shrubs next to the wall can be seen, and for a nicer design. They will blend in beautiful!
For the border, you can plant some ornamental grasses, like: Liriope big blue, Variegated Liriope, Aztec Grass, etc. If you like blooming plants, you can select and plant some bedding plants of the kind you like.
The plan for your front of the house is pretty much it. Now look around the rest of the front yard, and see where you want to plant e few ornamental trees, for some accent planting. Draw a nice circle bed around the accent trees, to plant some shrubs or blooming perennials or annuals.
In front of your yard, next to the street, think about some Blue Hydrangea, or Bridal Wreath, Pittosporum, Mock Orange, Jasmine, or any other plants that you prefer. Plant them along the width of your property as a statement. Let everyone who passes by know; "Hey, we love and care about our home!"
And don't forget the Mail Box. A nice rectangular, square, or circle flower bed will make a great improvement!
The plan for the front yard is pretty much implemented, and now it is time to apply it on the ground and prepare the soil for planting.
Take a flexible water hose and lay it down in the shape of your planting space, and mark the curve lines with landscape spray, once you have the plan the way you like it.
Prepare the ground in the spaces you want to landscape. Clean them of any rocks or debris, turn the soil with a spade, add some composted matter if you need to improve the nutrition of the soil.
Buy your plants from your local Nursery or Garden center, and set them on the landscaping space, each according to your plan. Move them around as much as necessary until you are fully satisfied with what you see. Once you like it, start digging the holes one at a time. Start with the trees that will frame your landscape, and then with the group planting around them.
Next, plant the foundation shrubs, then the staggered shrubs in the second row, and then the border. Once planted, water well and deeply so the water penetrates down to the roots.
Now is time to mulch. Once the mulching is done, your whole landscape will look stunning! You should be proud of a job well done! Take good and loving care of your plants, and as they just moved in, make them feel like at home! They will reward you with their beauty, fragrance, and fresh air, for many years to come!
And do you now what? They never talk back!
In the next article, we will talk about the back yard, how to do your landscaping on limited budget. So, come back often to walk you and me, together through the whole project.
Until next time,
Mike Borlovan
Thursday, August 12, 2010
How to Landscape The Front Of Your Home
This article about How to Landscape the front of your home, is written with the "do-it-yourself" in mind, and is intended to show all that you basically need to apply, with simple principles and basic elements for accomplishing the best results possible.
After many years of experience in the Nursery and Landscaping field, you get to the point, maybe by intuition, when you are called out to give an estimate, you pretty much could tell how is it going to look when it is done, and how much is it going to cost, just by looking at the house. It becomes such a routine, but still, each and every house has it's own characteristics, and I would adventure to say, personality.
The character and the personality of a home might be because of the color and the position of the house on the rough landscape, and many other factors.
Now, that was not always the case. When I'm thinking of my first projects, many years ago, I remember struggling a lot to do my utmost best to create and design the best landscaping plan possible to get the job, and to build my reputation as a landscaper. That was not an easy task. There are several principles and elements in the landscaping design, that you have to keep in mind, and to apply in order to do a good job.
The element of form, the shape of the "line", the size of the landscape relative to the size of the property, and many other principles and elements that you need to keep account of when designing a landscape project.
The purpose of this article is not really to give any definition of the landscaping, or to complicate things in any way, but rather to help the home owners to create their own project, in this case, intended mostly for the front of the house.
Concentrating on the very front of the house, is essential to pay attention to every little detail, since that is the part of your landscape that will decide the character of your real estate, and the first impression for the visitors. Just think of a painting, where the front yard is your canvas, you are the artist, and you must decide the "colors". That's another important element for your landscape project in order to be a success! The colors!
Another important element in designing a landscaping project, is the "lines" in the shaping of the planting surfaces. I believe that for a nice aesthetic design, the lines play a significant role. For myself it always played a very significant role. I also believe that it played a very important part in the success of many of my landscaping projects, the using of curve lines in most of my landscape designs. No matter from what angle you are looking at a curved line design, it will always look beautiful!
I personally, never liked to use too many straight lines when designing the planting space right next to the front of the house. Only if I did not have a choice, like when there was a walkway from the front door and turning to the left or to the right of the house at 90 degrees in a straight line, not too far from the wall of the house. It was always working better when the walkway was straight from the front door towards the street, to the Mail Box. Or if it turned anywhere farther away from the immediate vicinity of the home itself.
Thus, I had plenty room to play with my prefered curve lines in my design.
It always worked and looked much better when I was using curved lines, starting from the side of the house, where usually there is an AC unit, at the left side or the right side of the house. It doesn't really matter. I hope that you can envision the design as we go along in describing the shape of the planting space.
Here we go!
Drawing a curve line in such a way as to hide the AC unit with a few taller shrubs, coming with a fine curved line to the corner of the house, and expanding the line in a loop shape, to give you the chance to plant a little tree to kind of frame the house with some accent planting, on both extreme corners of the house.
Then from that loop line at the corner, I was drawing a curve line allowing room for other shrubs and blooming perennials, bedding plants and some ornamental grasses, as accent planting, going towards the front door to the walkway. Right here, next to the walkway, on both sides of it, I planted another little tree, a topiary or any other tall shrub, for the purpose of framing the landscape, to give it some character and again, accent. The right front side of the house will perfectly mirror the left front side.
Now in between the two corners and the taller trees or topiary plants next to the walkway, you can plant some low maintenance shrubs, about 16 to 24 inches from the wall, and about 2 to 3 feet apart, as foundation planting. These can be Compacta Hollies, Korean Boxwood, Indian Hawthorne, or any other low maintenance shrubs that you like.
Right in front of this row of shrubs that is called the "foundation planting", you can plant in a staggered fashion, so that the back row next to the wall should be visible, some other low growing shrubs, like Yaupons, Helleri, Soft Touch, or any other shrubs that you like. Right in front of the second row of shrubs, as a border, plant some ornamental grass like green or variegated Liriope, Aztec grass, etc. for some nice color variations.
For some nice colors, plant a few bedding plants of your choice, and as they are seasonal, you can always change the colors as you please. This should create a nice unique character to your home.
But wait, I've got ahead of myself, jumping too fast to the planting faze! Assuming that you draw all this on a sheet of paper, you pretty much have the lay out of how your finish project is going to look like. At least you have a pretty good idea.
Now let's mark our project on the ground, and see how is it going to work out. First let's start with the side of the house, where the AC unit is located, be it on the left or right side of the house. Or if the unit is on the back side, then you don't have to worry about it, for now. Only if, and when you will start working on your back yard landscaping.
So, we going to take a flexible water hose, and lay it down in a nice curve line, from the back corner of the house coming towards the front corner, and forming the loop we were talking about. Make it large enough so the loop will accommodate one tree, and three low growing shrubs for a group planting right in front of the tree. I hope you get the picture.
Continue to go with the hose, in a nice curve (again) expanding the line just a little away from the house, to have room to accommodate the shrubs and the rest of the plants described above. Go all the way to the walkway, and end the line a little towards the street, to make room for your next accent tree or topiary.
Look at the lay out of this side of the house, from different angles, and adjust the line until you like what you see. It's not really much to see, yet, but you'll have a pretty good idea. Once you are satisfied with the lay out, mark the line with a landscape spray can, that you can find at the hardware store, and do exactly the same thing on the other side of the house.
Now is the time to measure and see how many plants you going to need. Keep account of the distance you will need between the plants, and then figure out how many can you accommodate, not to make it too crowded, nor too bare. It should be a nice balance, pleasant to the beholder. Remember, this is your work of art, and it should make you very proud!
The hardest part is over! Now let's get our hands dirty, and let the fun begin!
So, the beautiful lay out of our plan is done, let's clean the ground of any rocks and debris and if necessary, let's add some amendments, like cow manure, several bags, some good fertilizer, and spread it on the top, and till it in the dirt. Rake it nicely, and now you can buy the plants, from your preferred Garden Center.
Water the plants until you have time to start planting. The fun part is just about to start!
Lay the plants in their position, and look at the entire picture once again, from different angles. Move the plants as many times as you like, while they are still in pots, until you are fully satisfied as how your landscape is going to look.
Once you have them all in place, leave them right there, and just pull away just one at a time, and dig the hole, and plant your trees and shrubs one by one. Dig the hole large enough so that the roots have room to expand.
Note: under no circumstance should you put any fertilizer in contact with the roots at planting time! This is very important! Sometimes in our eagerness to make the plants grow faster then they should, we put fertilizer to the roots, and that will burn the roots, and the plants will surely die! Best way to fertilize with, is what we call "top dress" with slow release fertilizers. Let mother nature do the job, and we should not force anything on it.
Once you planted all the plants, is time to apply the mulch, about 2 to 3 inches deep, and this should ad a phenomenal beauty and neatness to your landscape project!
Make a nice little flower bed around your mail box, mulch it as well, and plant strategically for even greater accent some nice ornamental trees, in the rest of your front yard.
Once planting is done, water well and make sure that you water slowly so that the water penetrates down to the roots. Just a sprinkle on the top of the soil is not going to be enough. Remember, your new plants just moved in, and they need time to accommodate in their new location. So, please, make them feel right at Home!
If you like this article, and it has helped you in any way, please leave a comment, and help me to improve my service, to you, the readers. Your following me on this blog, is highly appreciated!
http://borlovans-nursery.blogspot.com/
Until next time, Happy Gardening!
Mike Borlovan
After many years of experience in the Nursery and Landscaping field, you get to the point, maybe by intuition, when you are called out to give an estimate, you pretty much could tell how is it going to look when it is done, and how much is it going to cost, just by looking at the house. It becomes such a routine, but still, each and every house has it's own characteristics, and I would adventure to say, personality.
The character and the personality of a home might be because of the color and the position of the house on the rough landscape, and many other factors.
Now, that was not always the case. When I'm thinking of my first projects, many years ago, I remember struggling a lot to do my utmost best to create and design the best landscaping plan possible to get the job, and to build my reputation as a landscaper. That was not an easy task. There are several principles and elements in the landscaping design, that you have to keep in mind, and to apply in order to do a good job.
The element of form, the shape of the "line", the size of the landscape relative to the size of the property, and many other principles and elements that you need to keep account of when designing a landscape project.
The purpose of this article is not really to give any definition of the landscaping, or to complicate things in any way, but rather to help the home owners to create their own project, in this case, intended mostly for the front of the house.
Concentrating on the very front of the house, is essential to pay attention to every little detail, since that is the part of your landscape that will decide the character of your real estate, and the first impression for the visitors. Just think of a painting, where the front yard is your canvas, you are the artist, and you must decide the "colors". That's another important element for your landscape project in order to be a success! The colors!
Another important element in designing a landscaping project, is the "lines" in the shaping of the planting surfaces. I believe that for a nice aesthetic design, the lines play a significant role. For myself it always played a very significant role. I also believe that it played a very important part in the success of many of my landscaping projects, the using of curve lines in most of my landscape designs. No matter from what angle you are looking at a curved line design, it will always look beautiful!
I personally, never liked to use too many straight lines when designing the planting space right next to the front of the house. Only if I did not have a choice, like when there was a walkway from the front door and turning to the left or to the right of the house at 90 degrees in a straight line, not too far from the wall of the house. It was always working better when the walkway was straight from the front door towards the street, to the Mail Box. Or if it turned anywhere farther away from the immediate vicinity of the home itself.
Thus, I had plenty room to play with my prefered curve lines in my design.
It always worked and looked much better when I was using curved lines, starting from the side of the house, where usually there is an AC unit, at the left side or the right side of the house. It doesn't really matter. I hope that you can envision the design as we go along in describing the shape of the planting space.
Here we go!
Drawing a curve line in such a way as to hide the AC unit with a few taller shrubs, coming with a fine curved line to the corner of the house, and expanding the line in a loop shape, to give you the chance to plant a little tree to kind of frame the house with some accent planting, on both extreme corners of the house.
Then from that loop line at the corner, I was drawing a curve line allowing room for other shrubs and blooming perennials, bedding plants and some ornamental grasses, as accent planting, going towards the front door to the walkway. Right here, next to the walkway, on both sides of it, I planted another little tree, a topiary or any other tall shrub, for the purpose of framing the landscape, to give it some character and again, accent. The right front side of the house will perfectly mirror the left front side.
Now in between the two corners and the taller trees or topiary plants next to the walkway, you can plant some low maintenance shrubs, about 16 to 24 inches from the wall, and about 2 to 3 feet apart, as foundation planting. These can be Compacta Hollies, Korean Boxwood, Indian Hawthorne, or any other low maintenance shrubs that you like.
Right in front of this row of shrubs that is called the "foundation planting", you can plant in a staggered fashion, so that the back row next to the wall should be visible, some other low growing shrubs, like Yaupons, Helleri, Soft Touch, or any other shrubs that you like. Right in front of the second row of shrubs, as a border, plant some ornamental grass like green or variegated Liriope, Aztec grass, etc. for some nice color variations.
For some nice colors, plant a few bedding plants of your choice, and as they are seasonal, you can always change the colors as you please. This should create a nice unique character to your home.
But wait, I've got ahead of myself, jumping too fast to the planting faze! Assuming that you draw all this on a sheet of paper, you pretty much have the lay out of how your finish project is going to look like. At least you have a pretty good idea.
Now let's mark our project on the ground, and see how is it going to work out. First let's start with the side of the house, where the AC unit is located, be it on the left or right side of the house. Or if the unit is on the back side, then you don't have to worry about it, for now. Only if, and when you will start working on your back yard landscaping.
So, we going to take a flexible water hose, and lay it down in a nice curve line, from the back corner of the house coming towards the front corner, and forming the loop we were talking about. Make it large enough so the loop will accommodate one tree, and three low growing shrubs for a group planting right in front of the tree. I hope you get the picture.
Continue to go with the hose, in a nice curve (again) expanding the line just a little away from the house, to have room to accommodate the shrubs and the rest of the plants described above. Go all the way to the walkway, and end the line a little towards the street, to make room for your next accent tree or topiary.
Look at the lay out of this side of the house, from different angles, and adjust the line until you like what you see. It's not really much to see, yet, but you'll have a pretty good idea. Once you are satisfied with the lay out, mark the line with a landscape spray can, that you can find at the hardware store, and do exactly the same thing on the other side of the house.
Now is the time to measure and see how many plants you going to need. Keep account of the distance you will need between the plants, and then figure out how many can you accommodate, not to make it too crowded, nor too bare. It should be a nice balance, pleasant to the beholder. Remember, this is your work of art, and it should make you very proud!
The hardest part is over! Now let's get our hands dirty, and let the fun begin!
So, the beautiful lay out of our plan is done, let's clean the ground of any rocks and debris and if necessary, let's add some amendments, like cow manure, several bags, some good fertilizer, and spread it on the top, and till it in the dirt. Rake it nicely, and now you can buy the plants, from your preferred Garden Center.
Water the plants until you have time to start planting. The fun part is just about to start!
Lay the plants in their position, and look at the entire picture once again, from different angles. Move the plants as many times as you like, while they are still in pots, until you are fully satisfied as how your landscape is going to look.
Once you have them all in place, leave them right there, and just pull away just one at a time, and dig the hole, and plant your trees and shrubs one by one. Dig the hole large enough so that the roots have room to expand.
Note: under no circumstance should you put any fertilizer in contact with the roots at planting time! This is very important! Sometimes in our eagerness to make the plants grow faster then they should, we put fertilizer to the roots, and that will burn the roots, and the plants will surely die! Best way to fertilize with, is what we call "top dress" with slow release fertilizers. Let mother nature do the job, and we should not force anything on it.
Once you planted all the plants, is time to apply the mulch, about 2 to 3 inches deep, and this should ad a phenomenal beauty and neatness to your landscape project!
Make a nice little flower bed around your mail box, mulch it as well, and plant strategically for even greater accent some nice ornamental trees, in the rest of your front yard.
Once planting is done, water well and make sure that you water slowly so that the water penetrates down to the roots. Just a sprinkle on the top of the soil is not going to be enough. Remember, your new plants just moved in, and they need time to accommodate in their new location. So, please, make them feel right at Home!
If you like this article, and it has helped you in any way, please leave a comment, and help me to improve my service, to you, the readers. Your following me on this blog, is highly appreciated!
http://borlovans-nursery.blogspot.com/
Until next time, Happy Gardening!
Mike Borlovan
Friday, August 6, 2010
Easy Gardening With Raised Beds
Easy gardening with raised beds, is a simple solussion and easyer to manage.
To have a good variety of fresh vegetables and herbs to spice up your dishes and salads, the raised beds is the way to go. Just a few pieces of boards, a few nails, and you can have your rectangular frames done in no time. There might be some old boards laying around your property, that can be brought to duty, to make them useful again, thus keeping your cost very low.
So, the raised beds are easy to build and they should not be expensive, either.
Choose a good sunny spot close to your house to make it more accesible and easyer to water. Hook your hose to a spigot and just water when it's not raining.
An ideal width of the beds should not be wider then 4 feet, for easy reach from both sides of the bed, and as long as you like. It depends on how much space you have, and how many kinds of vegetables you want to grow.
You can use 2 x 6 x 8, or 10 or 12, or if you have some 2 by 4 laying around unused, put 3 layers of frames on top of each other, to make it higher, to give the plants more room to spread the roots in the ground.
Nail the boards at the corners and you've got your frames for your raised beds. Set them in your selected spot, and lay some cardboards on the bottom, to keep any weeds from coming up through the soil. That is necessary if you lay the frames on top of the sod, and if you don't want to remove it. It's easyer that way.
Now you are ready to put some top soil in your beds, or another solussion that I use, is ground pine bark. This works real good and it's easyer to work with, because it is lighter, and more porous, allowing the air to get to the roots. I'm not talking about 'air pockets', just some air to the roots as it happens naturaly.
At this point it's a good idea to add some well composted cow manure and mix it into the soil. The vegetables love rich nutritious dirt. Now level the soil with a rake, and you are ready to get your hands dirty.
Choose the vegetables you like the most, and start planting. Once you have your list of the veggies you want to grow, shop for your seeds. A few examples of vegetable seeds would be: tomatoes, bell peppers, banana peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, radish, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, squash, snap beans, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, parsnip, etc. The list could be endless, but since your space is probably limited, you choose what you like best.
Build as many beds as you want. I would dedicate one of the beds, for the herbs, like: parsley, dill, basil, fennel, cilantro, arugula, chives, thyme, tarragon, rosemary, peppermint, oregano, sage, etc.
If you have the space, think about a bed for the strawberries. Rich in vitamins and minerals, and very good to eat.
Once you have the selected seeds, you can plant them indoors, in small peat-pots, like jiffy pots, and when the danger of a late frost is gone, you plant them in your raised beds. If you don't want to start the plants by seeds, purchase the starter plants from your local Garden Center, and plant them directly in your vegetable beds. For the herbs, I would rather start them myself from seeds in some 3 to 4 inch plastic pots, and then plant them in the beds. It's much cheaper like that. Soon I will have a special article dedicated to growing herbs successfully in small containers.
Here are some raised beds made of lumber that was laying around, and I've put them to use.
As you can see, they don't really take too much room, and you can plant quite a few vegetables in a small bed like that. In the bed on the left you can see as I've nailed two thin 2x2's in the frame, and tied a wire mesh for the cucumbers to climb on, thus saving a lot of space. It worked out pretty good. In front of the cucumbers, I've planted a second crop of tomatoes, after an initial crop of snap beans was over. On the right bed I have some Black Krim Tomatoes. They have an excellent flavor, seeds originated from Russia. Very productive!
As you can see it's simple and practical. The beds are placed close to the house for easy access and easy watering. Once you planted the raised beds, there is not much ells to do, other then enjoy the fruits of your "easy labour", and just keep an eye now and then for any weeds that might pop up in your little garden. Pluck them out and toss them in your compost pile, where you can slowly but surely accumulate some composted matter for the next season. Leaves work wonders! Don't burn them, but rather gather the leaves and put them in a pile for future use.
Here is another view of the modest but useful raised beds.
It's so easy, and I have a lot of fun! Now I can enjoy the freshest vegetables possible with a low cost and plenty convenience. So do you! Why not eat healthy and fresh, besides the fact that you can watch every faze of the growing process, of your little garden paradise.
The vegetables that travel long distance from imports or even domestic, can't even come close to the freshness of what you can pluck from your garden whenever you please. And they cost you very little compared to what you are paying at your supermarket, or the produce stand. I would not trade this for anything. What is more beautiful then relax in the tranquility of your home, gardening for better living.
Enjoy the chirping of the birds, and the butterflies dancing in the sun. As a bonus you get the free exercise, that is good for your body, your soul, and your mind.
If you like what you read in this article, please leave a comment and follow me on this blog. I will publish new and useful articles that I think it would help you make the right decision in your gardening endeavours.
I sure appreciate you taking the time to visit my blog, and until next time, happy gardening, and get your hands dirty, in your garden, of course.
Grand-paw Mike
To have a good variety of fresh vegetables and herbs to spice up your dishes and salads, the raised beds is the way to go. Just a few pieces of boards, a few nails, and you can have your rectangular frames done in no time. There might be some old boards laying around your property, that can be brought to duty, to make them useful again, thus keeping your cost very low.
So, the raised beds are easy to build and they should not be expensive, either.
Choose a good sunny spot close to your house to make it more accesible and easyer to water. Hook your hose to a spigot and just water when it's not raining.
An ideal width of the beds should not be wider then 4 feet, for easy reach from both sides of the bed, and as long as you like. It depends on how much space you have, and how many kinds of vegetables you want to grow.
You can use 2 x 6 x 8, or 10 or 12, or if you have some 2 by 4 laying around unused, put 3 layers of frames on top of each other, to make it higher, to give the plants more room to spread the roots in the ground.
Nail the boards at the corners and you've got your frames for your raised beds. Set them in your selected spot, and lay some cardboards on the bottom, to keep any weeds from coming up through the soil. That is necessary if you lay the frames on top of the sod, and if you don't want to remove it. It's easyer that way.
Now you are ready to put some top soil in your beds, or another solussion that I use, is ground pine bark. This works real good and it's easyer to work with, because it is lighter, and more porous, allowing the air to get to the roots. I'm not talking about 'air pockets', just some air to the roots as it happens naturaly.
At this point it's a good idea to add some well composted cow manure and mix it into the soil. The vegetables love rich nutritious dirt. Now level the soil with a rake, and you are ready to get your hands dirty.
Choose the vegetables you like the most, and start planting. Once you have your list of the veggies you want to grow, shop for your seeds. A few examples of vegetable seeds would be: tomatoes, bell peppers, banana peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, radish, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, squash, snap beans, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, parsnip, etc. The list could be endless, but since your space is probably limited, you choose what you like best.
Build as many beds as you want. I would dedicate one of the beds, for the herbs, like: parsley, dill, basil, fennel, cilantro, arugula, chives, thyme, tarragon, rosemary, peppermint, oregano, sage, etc.
If you have the space, think about a bed for the strawberries. Rich in vitamins and minerals, and very good to eat.
Once you have the selected seeds, you can plant them indoors, in small peat-pots, like jiffy pots, and when the danger of a late frost is gone, you plant them in your raised beds. If you don't want to start the plants by seeds, purchase the starter plants from your local Garden Center, and plant them directly in your vegetable beds. For the herbs, I would rather start them myself from seeds in some 3 to 4 inch plastic pots, and then plant them in the beds. It's much cheaper like that. Soon I will have a special article dedicated to growing herbs successfully in small containers.
Here are some raised beds made of lumber that was laying around, and I've put them to use.
As you can see it's simple and practical. The beds are placed close to the house for easy access and easy watering. Once you planted the raised beds, there is not much ells to do, other then enjoy the fruits of your "easy labour", and just keep an eye now and then for any weeds that might pop up in your little garden. Pluck them out and toss them in your compost pile, where you can slowly but surely accumulate some composted matter for the next season. Leaves work wonders! Don't burn them, but rather gather the leaves and put them in a pile for future use.
Here is another view of the modest but useful raised beds.
The vegetables that travel long distance from imports or even domestic, can't even come close to the freshness of what you can pluck from your garden whenever you please. And they cost you very little compared to what you are paying at your supermarket, or the produce stand. I would not trade this for anything. What is more beautiful then relax in the tranquility of your home, gardening for better living.
Enjoy the chirping of the birds, and the butterflies dancing in the sun. As a bonus you get the free exercise, that is good for your body, your soul, and your mind.
If you like what you read in this article, please leave a comment and follow me on this blog. I will publish new and useful articles that I think it would help you make the right decision in your gardening endeavours.
I sure appreciate you taking the time to visit my blog, and until next time, happy gardening, and get your hands dirty, in your garden, of course.
Grand-paw Mike
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