Entries for the 'DESIGN AND LANDSCAPING ' Category

Growing annual flowers is not easy in dry climates because of the water shortages. Here are some tips for enjoying flower color, without using too much water.

While the quality of artificial grass products have definitely improved in recent years, and while there is a place for them in certain public situations, the home gardener should think twice before installing a synthetic lawn.

Despite the reputation for littering, trees and shrubs that drop their leaves are an integral part of the garden composition. An approach from a Mediterranean gardening point of view.

To get the most from bedding plants, they should be suited to the style of the garden as a whole. Here are some tips for matching them with the rest of the garden plants.

You can spend a lot of money on design, construction and plants and still end up a few years on, with a very poor garden. The reason may be found in what was not done before the process got underway.

When choosing which shrubs to include in your garden, your starting point may be based on your favorite likes and dislikes. As counter intuitive as it may sound, this approach is mistaken. Instead, you can think like a professional garden designer, by allotting a specific design role to each element in the garden, including the landscape shrubs and bushes.

 The shape and size of a plant's foliage, or its leaf texture, is a major consideration with regard to designing with plants.

Perhaps you associate Chrysanthemums with cut flowers. You should know though, that there are some excellent perennial “Mums” that have landscaping uses as well.

If you are looking for a plant to cover a wire fence, then considering plants according to their growth habit will help you make the right choice.

While plants climbing up a wall can be spectacular, be careful that they don't make YOU climb up the wall instead!

Nothing can spoil a garden more than the random, haphazard use of color. How then does a professional garden designer approach the question of color?

Designing color in the garden is not only a question of creating harmonies and contrasts. It is also a matter of understanding the varying properties of the different hues.

When choosing landscape shrubs and bushes, the home gardener is often overwhelmed by the range and variety available today. Here are some guidelines for thinking as would a professional designer.

When choosing landscape shrubs and bushes, the home gardener is often overwhelmed by the range and variety available today. Here are some guidelines for thinking as would a professional designer.

An example that illustrates how an understanding of the principles of design can be applied when choosing bushes for a plant combination.

Many excellent ornamentals are difficult to find in garden centers, often or not for the wrong reasons.

Reaching the level of the top professionals in garden design takes years of study and experience. There is nothing stopping you though, understanding their approach and mindset.

Growing landscape climbers, shrubs and trees by the espalier technique can add that special touch to your garden.

To create a flower bed composition that really works, it is necessary to take factors other than flower color into account. Here is a tip that can put you in the right direction.

The naive gardener thinks of the flowerbed exclusively in terms of color. The professional garden designer takes into account other factors as well.

Here are five tips for cultivating flowering bedding plants while keeping WITHIN your annual water consumption budget.

Using color effectively in the garden, as in the kitchen or sitting room, is largely a matter of getting the right balance between harmony and contrast.

While many homeowners want their garden to have a natural style, just sticking plants in the ground in a random manner is not the way to achieve it.

A design problem common to all gardens, but particularly pertinent to small private ones, is what to do with the different areas that surround the house. This question invariably arises in suburban plots typified by a front and back garden separated by the house, and an entrance way between the two.

It takes some courage, but planting a flowerbed with one color can make for a stunning focal point in your garden.

The best way to derive inspiration from a garden design book, or from walking around a fine public park, is to relax, enjoy the sights, and try to understand the principles behind what you see.

The term flowerbed usually evokes images of dazzling color. In practice, the flowerbed often ends up as a disappointing eyesore. Here are some thoughts on how best to plan this part of your garden.

Why less is more when it comes to creating a successful garden composition

If you have a lawn surrounded by flowerbeds shrubs and a fruit tree in the back garden, do you need the same thing in the front? This article raises a number of important garden design issues.

Creating a satisfying garden composition is a question of applying correctly the universal rules of design.

Bedding plants are most effective in a garden composition when they combine well with the rest of the plants. This particularly the case when junipers form the heart of a planting design.

The need to save water in dry climate gardens, involves reducing the size of the lawn. This is best achieved by changing the way we approach garden design.

Throwing flowers around a magnificent old tree is not usually the best way to give it the dignity it deserves. Here are some ideas to enhance the splendor of the tree.

The gardener in a dry climate where water is at a premium, may look jealously at garden books from wetter climates, and dream of growing acres of lawn. In fact, reducing the amount of lawn invariably leads to better design solutions.

Not all shrubs and bushes are suited to being grown as a trimmed hedge. This article establishes the criteria by which suitable species should be chosen.

A professional technique for choosing landscaping trees, is to consider first their form and shape. Trees and shrubs that develop an umbrella shape are a category particularly suited to a small home garden.

There are many garden plants that could be extremely poisonous and nasty. Are you aware of all the dangers lurking in your backyard, for yourself and your family?

While ground cover plants are used in a variety of situations, not all types are suitable for every location. Here are some plants that are excellent for small, intimate spaces.

Junipers come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, from large trees to prostrate ground covers. Their drought-resistance, ease of care, and attractive appearance, make the ground cover species particularly essential for dry climate gardeners.

Due to water shortages, gardeners in dry climates are planting ground cover plants as an alternative to lawns. Disappointment often follows unfortunately, because of unrealistic expectations from the outset. This article may help you get better results.

In order to save water in the garden, the area set aside for grass has to be reduced. The use of ground cover plants is one practical and aesthetic solution.

Ground cover plants should not be seen as a substitute for grass, but rather, as having design value in their own right. Considering they need far less water than lawns, their use in dry Mediterranean climates is essential.

Climbing, vine-like plants are often an exciting element in the garden, but can be more trouble than their worth. This article shows you how to choose wisely.

Many home gardeners give up in frustration and let their flower bed go to seed. Here is an approach that may help you get back on track.

A secret that can turn your garden into a special one! An idea particularly suited to a dry climate garden.

In landscape garden design, the low-growing bedding plants should have as much in common as possible with the trees and shrubs. With this in mind, Santolina is one of the best choices for a Mediterranean-style garden.

While there is no shortage of plants with colored leaves, the home gardener does not always choose them wisely. Here are some tips for getting the best out of them, and avoiding some of the pitfalls.

There are many things to consider when selecting the rose varieties most suitable for your garden. The starting point though is having a clear design direction at the outset.

Living and working in the Eastern Mediterranean, I've come to the conclusion that there's one tree amongst many that is unmatched in its suitability for a small home garden in a dry climate.

Many home gardeners choose a landscape tree based on spectacular flower color or some other showy feature. The professional garden designer however, considers flower color at the end not at the beginning of the design process.

Shrubs and bushes provide privacy from neighbors and screen out unsightly views. Here are some good design reasons for growing them as trimmed hedges.

If you want to get the most from your bedding plants, look beyond the question of color, into the form, shape and texture of the plants, and how they fit into the overall garden composition.

Metrosideros or Pohutukawa, as an evergreen tree or large shrub, is both a useful screening plant, and a beautifully decorative landscape bush. Its tolerance of drought, pests and disease, make it a must for many gardens in dry, Mediterranean climates.

Nandina domestica and Duranta erecta are two excellent landscaping shrubs suitable for Mediterranean and other mild-winter climates. The design effect of planting them together though, is not generally recognized by gardeners.

As autumn is now well under way in the northern hemisphere, it would be opportune to discuss the question of color in the garden at this season, for in warm Mediterranean climates, this is a time of year generally lacking in color.

Decorative grasses and grass-like plants are so versatile in their potential to solve design problems, that they are suitable to most garden styles, and especially to dry climate gardens.

In order to avoid disappointment with your garden, it’s important to be aware of the types of plant, that for different reasons, can spoil your plot, and ruin your dream.

Even if some of the fruit that grow on trees and shrubs are not meant to be eaten, they can add significant color and interest to your garden, especially at time of the year, when these are in somewhat short supply.

Garden plants whose foliage color is some variant of silver, grey or bluish-green, are an important resource for the garden designer. The home gardener too should learn how to use them wisely.

Slow growing plants are often synonymous with water-conserving ones in many gardeners’ minds. Some Species of Rhus though, develop quickly, requiring modest amounts of water at the same time.

Saving water does not have to mean a poor, miserable garden. On the contrary, the limitations imposed by the water crisis in dry climates, opens the way for fresh and exciting design ideas to replace the old worn-out clichés.

An ornamental plant of distinct shape and form should almost always be included in a planting scheme.

Successfully growing roses has much to do with preparing the soil properly, and maintaining the plants correctly. It all starts though with clearly understanding the roses’ design function in the garden composition.

Choosing a tree, especially one close to the house, is the most critical gardening decision you will have to make. Here are some pointers to help you get it right.

Landscape shrubs and bushes are a vital part of garden design and composition. In order to use them most effectively, their design role should be clearly understood.

How do you cover space at a height of about 50-70 cm? Small ornamental shrubs are often the answer.

There is far more benefit from growing herbs in a dry, Mediterranean garden, than just produce to cook with. Read on to find out.

The tree cannot only make or break the garden, it can affect how members of the family function and feel. It is not enough therefore, to choose the right tree type, but also to avoid planting it in the wrong place!