Category: Gardening and Landscaping

It takes more than a newly mowed lawn and a few perennials to make an attractive outdoor area. After all, as they say, “the devil is in the details.” Landscaping competition is just one of the details that’s easily overlooked, though it makes a big visual impact. Using edging substances in your landscaping helps keep allergens in your planting beds while keeping grass out. Gardeners can choose from a wide choice of edging options, each with its own benefits. Plastic Plastic is among the very cost-effective edging substances, though it isn’t the most appealing. Plastic competition will be noticeable in the landscape. Additionally, although the material is usually long-lasting, plastic edging is readily damaged from the blade of the mower and may heave out of the ground during periods of freezing and thawing. Plastic edging is available in a variety of colors and styles, many of which are flexible and…

Ancient civilizations in Egypt and the Far East first incorporated water gardens to the landscape. Ponds with papyrus, water lilies and swimming koi forged a relationship between man and nature. Europeans carried on the tradition with formal pools and Greek- and Roman-inspired fountains. For modern Americans, what was once a backyard oasis is more frequently being brought to the entrance to buffer the noise in the road and greet the house’s guests with serene beauty. Advantages of Water Features Close Entrances Soothing, rhythmic sounds like water trickling in a fountain, along with other organic sounds such as birds splashing in a birdbath, can trigger strong emotional reactions. These sounds may even have physical consequences, perhaps lowered blood pressure, for those arriving home at rush hour. Feng shui, the Chinese system of subtly manipulating energies to attain balance with one’s surroundings, favors small ponds, fountains and birdbaths in entryway gardens. Therefore,…

Should you dislike weed pulling and want to curb the amount of time you invest bent over your veggies doing this dull core, landscape cloth that is black might be the answer you’ve been looking for. This artificial woven cloth lasts for years because it smothers weeds while more expensive than plastic mulch. A roll can provide coverage for a small number of planters or containers, should you small vegetable gardening. Landscape cloth might also be a rewarding investment for smaller to vegetable plots. Vegetable Plot Unroll the cloth and cut it. Typical rolls may run 3-by- feet or 100 feet. Lay the landscape cloth down beginning at one edge of the plot or raised the weave on top and bed with the side down. Overlap each row of cloth. Hold the cloth in place with a landscape staple, one . Wherever you would like to place a vegetable seedling…

The web is full of images of plants growing in unusual places, such as on walls, from pallets and in wooden structures. Wooden towers permit you to develop strawberries (Fragaria spp.) , which develop in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 through 8, with less garden area or on a terrace. The dirt is retained in these structures in 2 ways, depending upon the design. Some use pieces of timber installed in an angle, but others use some type of manufactured or natural cloth to hold the dirt in place. Raised Raised Beds Pyramidal wooden strawberry towers have a succession of angled slats that form a series of bottomless nesting boxes. These are similar to raised beds in a horizontal garden, except that they are stacked on top of one another. The structure is held together and stabilized by vertical boards in the corners. Soil is added to…

Earlier this week we explored the newly restored inside of The Mount, Edith Wharton’s Berkshires house. Now it’s time to explore the motives! Wharton completed a European grand tour and then written a book called Italian Villas and Their Gardens that was published in 1904. She designed the formal gardens in The Mount herself to create a space between the home and the house’s woodlands, meadows and lake. Her niece, the famous landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, was also involved with the plan of their grounds. Here’s a look. More: Take a tour in the Home In Italian Villas and Their Gardens, Wharton observes”The Italian state house… was nearly always constructed on a hillside, and one afternoon the architect appeared forth from the terrace of his villa, and saw that, in his survey of the backyard, the enclosing landscape was naturally included: the two formed a part of the exact same…