Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Is A Rain Garden Design Right For You?

Wednesday, July 25th, 2007

Rain Garden Designs Are Beautiful But Require Careful Planning And Effort

A rain garden design, besides from being extremely beautiful, will also help you do your part to help the environment by conserving water. But hey, that’s not your first motivation for wanting to do one. Rain gardens are elegant and relaxing to look at and can really set you apart from the dull and drab of the typical yard.

If you want a great rain garden design then you can’t depend on the sale of the week plants at Home Depot. Rather, you need to think long and hard about a design for their gardens. They are very familiar with the most popular designs, and they decide which of these designs will be best for the space they garden. The rain garden has special characteristics. Many of these dedicated gardeners choose the rain garden design for the special qualities involved.

The Rain Garden Design Is Eco-Friendly

The rain garden design seeks to conserve water by not allowing rain water to escape. A rain garden should be good news for those paying the water bill. This bill should be substantially reduced by those with a rain garden for their landscapes. This type of garden is carefully planned and constructed to capture as much water as possible for use to nourish the plants in the garden. The properly constructed rain garden design should capture water that has run off the roof or gutter of a house.

Here are the elements of a good rain garden design:

  • stop waste-carrying run off from polluting fresh water supplies
  • processes waste
  • should not be located too close to a structure
  • well-placed to capture water
  • plants should get a lot of sunshine

Rain garden designs not only look stunningly beautiful but can be used to managed rain water in your yard and process waste run-off.

See also: Wikipedia on Rain Garden Design

Thinking Of A Tuscan Garden Design?

Thursday, July 12th, 2007

A Tuscan garden design is a great way to bring a taste of Italy to your yard. Rather then just haphazardly planting a bunch of flower together and hope you get the effective you want, why not use a Tuscan garden design approach as a model of elegant and beautiful gardening. This approach is traditional and timeless, yet fresh and unique.

Props Are As Important As The Flowers

Any Tuscan garden design will make ample use of flower pots of various kinds and made of various materials. Expect to use large amounts of garden containers to create your Tuscan garden design. However, you don’t have to feel as if you should buy vases and pots that look perfect; Tuscan garden design has a rustic, worked-in look where pots that are chipped or cracked have a place in the scheme of things.

Other Materials

A Tuscan garden design also depends heavily on the use garden furniture. Benches and fountains also have a place in an elaborate Tuscan garden design. Again, items that look older or worn work well in this design, incorporating the Italian respect for history into the overall look. Stone can be used for both fountains and benches and wrought iron also works well.

So What Kind Of Plants Should You Use?

Very simply, a true Tuscan garden design will use plants that are commonly used in Italy. In Tuscan garden design, it is best to use plants that are commonly associated with Italy. However, that still leaves a wide variety of plants to work with. Poppies and other flowers work nicely in Tuscan garden design, but these gardens can become celebrations of Italian foods as well as flowers, with tomato plants growing their ripe fruit, perhaps to be made into a fine red sauce some day. Or, move your herb garden from inside to outside and add a dimension of scent to your garden.

There are some other elements you’ll want in your Tuscan garden design. They are:

  • Trellises
  • Vines
  • Grape vines
  • Climbing rose vines

A trusty search in Google Images should turn up several photos of a Tuscan Garden Design.

Bristol Garden Design Layout

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

Space will be an issue in your Bristol garden design. Not everyone has the luxury of a large yard. These people have to be creative with the space they have and make the most of it.

This is where this article can be a huge help. In fact, the following should be help for gardeners in any urban area or in an area that doesn’t have a big yard. People with Bristol garden designs need to think out of the box, the need to be super creative to learn how to use limited space wisely so that you can have a garden you will be proud of.  Before you know it, your Bristol garden design will be looking fabulous.

Utilize Places That You Never Considered Putting a Garden

Is there an area outside that is particularly ugly? For example, is your garbage can just sort of there at the side of the house exposed? A small investment in some wood could build a cover area for the garbage cans to hide them. Then, you can plant on top and around the area to turn it around and make it look beautiful.

The best way to deal with space in your Bristol garden design is to find spaces that you didn’t think about and turn them into gardens. Rooftop gardens have become very popular because these are spaces that aren’t used for anything, and so people turn them into gardens.

Also, you can use things like window boxes and even buckets to have gardens in smaller spaces like the front steps and other areas that you might not have thought of. A back alley can easily be turned into a garden with the right kind of care and love that is needed to make the most out of it.

Think Outside Of the Box

When you are dealing with space in your Bristol garden design you have to make sure that you are finding ways to be creative. Planting things in usual spaces might mean that you have several small gardens all over one area of space. This is something that could make for a very neat set up and it could be fun to look at and to show others. This might be a great way to have a Bristol garden design without having to worry about the space issue.

One creative idea for a Bristol garden design, or for anyone that has limited space, is to build a vertical garden. Think of a short staircase with only three of four steps, and on each step you can place troughs for soil and grow in them, or you can place individual pots. Pretty clever, huh!

Yet another approach for the clever Bristol garden design is to also use hanging plants in addition with the staircase garden design. Hang plants from the ceiling down to the staircase. Ideally, you would choose vine-like varieties so they would flow down into to the rising plants and flowers below. Bristol garden design enthusiasts can have stunning gardens despite the lack of space.