Is it okay to start seeds this time of year (for herbs, like oregano, pennyroyal, thyme, roman chamomile, etc) if their intended use is for indoor containers? Or is it better to start in spring?
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Landscape gardening has often been likened to the painting of a picture. Your art-work teacher has doubtless told you that a good picture should have a point of chief interest, and the rest of the points simply go to make more beautiful the central idea, or to form a fine setting for it. So in landscape gardening there must be in the gardener’s mind a picture of what he desires the whole to be when he completes his work.
From this study we shall be able to work out a little theory of landscape gardening.
Let us go to the lawn. A good extent of open lawn space is always beautiful. It is restful. It adds a feeling of space to even small grounds. So we might generalize and say that it is well to keep open lawn spaces. If one covers his lawn space with many trees, with little flower beds here and there, the general effect is choppy and fussy. It is a bit like an over-dressed person. One’s grounds lose all individuality thus treated. A single tree or a small group is not a bad arrangement on the lawn. Do not centre the tree or trees. Let them drop a bit into the background. Make a pleasing side feature of them. In choosing trees one must keep in mind a number of things. You should not choose an overpowering tree; the tree should be one of good shape, with something interesting about its bark, leaves, flowers or fruit. While the poplar is a rapid grower, it sheds its leaves early and so is left standing, bare and ugly, before the fall is old. Mind you, there are places where a row or double row of Lombardy poplars is very effective. But I think you’ll agree with me that one lone poplar is not. The catalpa is quite lovely by itself. Its leaves are broad, its flowers attractive, the seed pods which cling to the tree until away into the winter, add a bit of picture squeness. The bright berries of the ash, the brilliant foliage of the sugar maple, the blossoms of the tulip tree, the bark of the white birch, and the leaves of the copper beech all these are beauty points to consider.
Place makes a difference in the selection of a tree. Suppose the lower portion of the grounds is a bit low and moist, then the spot is ideal for a willow. Don’t group trees together which look awkward. A long-looking poplar does not go with a nice rather rounded little tulip tree. A juniper, so neat and prim, would look silly beside a spreading chestnut. One must keep proportion and suitability in mind.
I’d never advise the planting of a group of evergreens close to a house, and in the front yard. The effect is very gloomy indeed. Houses thus surrounded are overcapped by such trees and are not only gloomy to live in, but truly unhealthful. The chief requisite inside a house is sunlight and plenty of it.
As trees are chosen because of certain good points, so shrubs should be. In a clump I should wish some which bloomed early, some which bloomed late, some for the beauty of their fall foliage, some for the colour of their bark and others for the fruit. Some spireas and the forsythia bloom early. The red bark of the dogwood makes a bit of colour all winter, and the red berries of the barberry cling to the shrub well into the winter.
Certain shrubs are good to use for hedge purposes. A hedge is rather prettier usually than a fence. The Californian privet is excellent for this purpose. Osage orange, Japan barberry, buckthorn, Japan quince, and Van Houtte’s spirea are other shrubs which make good hedges.
I forgot to say that in tree and shrub selection it is usually better to choose those of the locality one lives in. Unusual and foreign plants do less well, and often harmonize but poorly with their new setting.
Landscape gardening may follow along very formal lines or along informal lines. The first would have straight paths, straight rows in stiff beds, everything, as the name tells, perfectly formal. The other method is, of course, the exact opposite. There are danger points in each.
The formal arrangement is likely to look too stiff; the informal, too fussy, too wiggly. As far as paths go, keep this in mind, that a path should always lead somewhere. That is its business to direct one to a definite place. Now, straight, even paths are not unpleasing if the effect is to be that of a formal garden. The danger in the curved path is an abrupt curve, a whirligig effect. It is far better for you to stick to straight paths unless you can make a really beautiful curve. No one can tell you how to do this.
Garden paths may be of gravel, of dirt, or of grass. One sees grass paths in some very lovely gardens. I doubt, however, if they would serve as well in your small gardens. Your garden areas are so limited that they should be re-spaded each season, and the grass paths are a great bother in this work. Of course, a gravel path makes a fine appearance, but again you may not have gravel at your command. It is possible for any of you to dig out the path for two feet. Then put in six inches of stone or clinker. Over this, pack in the dirt, rounding it slightly toward the centre of the path. There should never be depressions through the central part of paths, since these form convenient places for water to stand. The under layer of stone makes a natural drainage system.
A building often needs the help of vines or flowers or both to tie it to the grounds in such a way as to form a harmonious whole. Vines lend themselves well to this work. It is better to plant a perennial vine, and so let it form a permanent part of your landscape scheme. The Virginia creeper, wistaria, honeysuckle, a climbing rose, the clematis and trumpet vine are all most satisfactory.
close your eyes and picture a house of natural colour, that mellow gray of the weathered shingles. Now add to this old house a purple wistaria. Can you see the beauty of it? I shall not forget soon a rather ugly corner of my childhood home, where the dining room and kitchen met. Just there climbing over, and falling over a trellis was a trumpet vine. It made beautiful an awkward angle, an ugly bit of carpenter work.
Of course, the morning-glory is an annual vine, as is the moon-vine and wild cucumber. Now, these have their special function. For often, it is necessary to cover an ugly thing for just a time, until the better things and better times come. The annual is ‘the chap’ for this work.
Along an old fence a hop vine is a thing of beauty. One might try to rival the woods’ landscape work. For often one sees festooned from one rotted tree to another the ampelopsis vine.
Flowers may well go along the side of the building, or bordering a walk. In general, though, keep the front lawn space open and unbroken by beds. What lovelier in early spring than a bed of daffodils close to the house? Hyacinths and tulips, too, form a blaze of glory. These are little or no bother, and start the spring aright. One may make of some bulbs an exception to the rule of unbroken front lawn. Snowdrops and crocuses planted through the lawn are beautiful. They do not disturb the general effect, but just blend with the whole. One expert bulb gardener says to take a basketful of bulbs in the fall, walk about your grounds, and just drop bulbs out here and there. Wherever the bulbs drop, plant them. Such small bulbs as those we plant in lawns should be in groups of four to six. Daffodils may be thus planted, too. You all remember the grape hyacinths that grow all through Katharine’s side yard.
The place for a flower garden is generally at the side or rear of the house. The backyard garden is a lovely idea, is it not? Who wishes to leave a beautiful looking front yard, turn the corner of a house, and find a dump heap? Not I. The flower garden may be laid out formally in neat little beds, or it may be more of a careless, hit-or-miss sort. Both have their good points. Great masses of bloom are attractive.
You should have in mind some notion of the blending of colour. Nature appears not to consider this at all, and still gets wondrous effects. This is because of the tremendous amount of her perfect background of green, and the limitlessness of her space, while we are confined at the best to relatively small areas. So we should endeavour not to blind people’s eyes with clashes of colours which do not at close range blend well. In order to break up extremes of colours you can always use masses of white flowers, or something like mignonette, which is in effect green.
Finally, let us sum up our landscape lesson. The grounds are a setting for the house or buildings. Open, free lawn spaces, a tree or a proper group well placed, flowers which do not clutter up the front yard, groups of shrubbery these are points to be remembered. The paths should lead somewhere, and be either straight or well curved. If one starts with a formal garden, one should not mix the informal with it before the work is done.
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We all love our summer gardens. Whether our gardens are meant to produce colorful blooms and fragrant flowers that delight the senses or plenty of vegetables that will keep our families fed throughout the long cold winter months, there is much to be said and enjoyed about keeping a summer garden growing and thriving. In fact, many of us look for ways to prolong the lives of our summer gardens in order to get that little bit of extra life from the flowers, plants, and vegetables that we plant in them. Keep reading to discover a few ways that you can prolong the life of your summer garden for a few more days, weeks, or even perhaps an extra month of color or vegetable production.
One thing you can do to prolong the life of your garden is by planting in a raised bed. This is basically planting your summer garden in a specifically designed garden box that rests above ground. These boxes will heat up quicker and cool down more slowly allowing a little extra growing time. For small flower or vegetable gardens these are often ideal allowing flowers to continue flowering and vegetables to continue producing after the initial seasonal frosts that often signal the end of growing seasons for those plants planted below ground.
If raised beds aren’t going to work for you, it is possible to begin the plants in the warmth of the interior of your home or a smaller scale raised bed and then transport them once they have matured a bit and the frost season is over with. This gives your garden a bit of a head start though it will do little to prolong the life of your garden once the first frost hits. For that, raised beds are truly the most effective method for small vegetable gardens. Those with large crops often find alternate heating methods and acceptable expense to prolong the lives of their gardens or to ward off against frosts that occur either early in the fall or after the initial spring planting.
You could also invest in garden row covers to protect your plants and extend their life a little beyond the average growing season or at the very least protect your plants through the first frost or so. These covers keep the plants nice and toasty warm in fact, it is important that you monitor them closely when covered to avoid overheating and do not use the covers when not necessary as this can affect the growth of the plants and the yields negatively as much as it can impact them in a positive manner.
You should understand that there is no requirement that says you must prolong the life of your garden. Many people get what they want from their garden whether it be the enjoyment of beauty from the bright and colorful flowers or enough vegetables to last through the leaner winter months when vegetables come at either a premium price or lack in flavor to some degree. Once you’ve gotten what you want or expect from your garden there really is no reason to prolong its life. There is especially no reason to take extraordinary steps to do so.
That being said there are many families that feel an extra month of color will help get them through the long and drab winter months that seem to be absent of bright and vividly colored flowers and that an extra week or two to harvest their vegetables will provide an extra month of two of food. These are very valid reasons for making the effort to extend the life of a summer garden. My hope is that the information above will help you do just that. Good luck with your summer garden and hopefully you will be able to enjoy your summer garden well into the fall or at the very least beyond the year’s first frost.
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Northern California offers great weather for a winter garden.
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ild who has found a new exciting plaything, this article about garden design will present a whole new world of awe and wonder for you. For those of us who love to garden, garden design is a subject near and dear to our hearts. When the winter months deprive you of the chance to roll up your sleeves and dig some dirt or tend the flowers, nothing can stop you from poring through the seed and plant catalogs, dreaming of spring. Plans to put in a cutting bed or create a mini-field of perennial wildflowers dance in your head like sugarplums, full of fun and promise. Without a cohesive plan for your planting adventures, you may end up with a garden design that’s not as pleasing as you’d like. Winter is a great time to work on sprucing up your existing garden and fine-tuning an overall design. After all, what else is there to do? The fun part of designing a garden is constructing your wishlist of plants, from shrubs to vegetables - and beyond, of course! Remember, you don’t need to do it all this year. Gardening is somewhat like a great marriage. It’s a lifelong love. So when you put your list of projects to paper, think long term. Don’t hesitate to include your ideal plants, garden ornamentation, brick pathway, or the massive display of spring bulbs giving way to summer perennials. The old way of garden design required graph paper, a sharp pencil, plenty of patience and excellent visualization skills. Although some gardeners still prefer this method, you can have a lot of fun creating your garden design with any number of excellent software packages that are available now.
We hope that you have gained a clear grasp of the subject matter presented in the first half of this article. There is some manual labor involved. You do need to measure the dimensions of your garden area. Once that’s accomplished, you’re ready to sit down and create a visual representation of your dream garden design. Garden design software comes with databases of plant images and characteristics, organized in categories. Choose your gardening zone, plant type, exposure and soil requirements to select those suited to your plot and taste. Such software lets you virtually install your brick pathway and plant a perimeter of annuals. You’ll see how many plants are required for the allotted space and how they’ll look at planting time as well as in midsummer. How about a shade tree to eventually cool your southern facing kitchen? Select your tree and plant it. See how much cooling cover it provides three or five or ten years from now. The software calculates the distance of the tree from your house that’s required to keep your foundation intact 20 years from now. Marvelous! The visuals provided by such garden design software are inspiring and accurate representations of what you may expect of your design, both in the short and long term. The best thing about garden design software is that if you decide you don’t care for the looks of an area, you just do it over - on your computer! You can also make as many garden designs as you wish. It’s a lovely way to spend some winter’s eves! Try and Copy/Paste a keyword from the title of this informative article about garden design on your favorite search engine and you are sure to find huge amounts of knowledge.
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I want a plant is can live in the winter. But I live in the dry place, but i’ll water it.
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For many households forced to follow a restricted routine of gas bills and heating, the end of winter is worthy of jubilation. But as many welcome the incoming spring some people’s joy may be short-lived as the risk of having unwanted, uninvited guests in their homes or gardens, or even in both, is realised.
Lighter evenings
Last year several warnings about the rising rate of thefts from gardens, including furniture, plants and equipment, were issued. These warnings kept homeowners on their toes and many felt they were sleeping with one eye wide open. Many sailed through and avoided tradgedy, however, a few casualties were recorded, as gardens were invaded in the most bizarre manners and expensive possessions carted away.
This year could be rather a different story as the economic recession is more pronounced and there are many more idle hands around keen to help themselves to your valued possessions.
One thing many of us will be really looking forward to, apart from the risk of burglary, is the longer days and lighter evenings which arrive with springs. This could mean anything from having a quiet relaxation to someone quietly spying on you to be sure of how and when to catch you off-guard.
British Summer Time
In the dark nights of winter, especially this year’s very chilly winter, garden theft was not an issue, as people struggled with the weather amidst rising heating bills.
But from next week, when spring sets in properly, the situation is expected to sharply change. The clement climate, home insurers warn, could see the risk of garden theft rising by 10 per cent. And by the time the clock changes from GMT to BST on the last Sunday of March the likelihood of burglary would have jumped by more than 25 per cent.
The most commonly targeted items, according to Norwich Union, are lawnmowers, cycles, garden tools and children’s toys. Of course, theft is not limited to these items, as burglars will be more than happy to take any other possessions left temptingly within their reach.
Safety measures
Although light-fingered thieves are poised to spoil people’s spring fun, there are several ways to ensure they don’t succeed. One simple way is to make sure that security measures, such as burglar alarms, are in place and in a good working condition. And always make sure your alarm is turned on and all doors secured while leaving home, even if you are only away for a short while.
Another thing most households take for granted is the level of protection their home insurance policy guarantees them. To be sure of the cover they have, policyholders need to check their policies to make sure they are aware of what the exact conditions of thier policies are and whether the coverage extends to their garden content as well as thier home.
If the cover is not comprehensive enough to protect ones garden against the possibility of burglary then it might be worth speaking to the insurer and discussing an upgrade.
However, the steps may be more complicated than those mentioned in this article. The best way to sufficiently secure peace of mind is to speak to an expert and specifically request to be taken through the whole process. This is especially necessary due to the involvement of a variety of garden contents, with each cost playing a role in determining what policy one would require or what claims to make following an incident.
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food out there but this happens every year.the house next door have ivy which has covered our side of one of our fences and we do get a lot of snails in the winter ,could this have anything to do with our problem now?
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I have perennials in my garden and wanted to know how do I cut them in order for them to come back next season. black eyes susans, etc.
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I have beaten Atticus Thorn for now…and i have escaped with my life, now i must continue my journey through the house. I stumble into the Winter Garden, where i must rotate fountains to light the room, but theres a catch… the ground beneath me will crumble and fall into unending darkness if i step on it, taking me along with it! This is me playing through the somewhat frightening game (with a slight weapon upgrade) on the Nightmare Difficulty Level. What makes it even more scary is that …
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