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Common Mistakes of Landscaping
It’s about time we gave a nod to HGTV, the Home and Garden Network, in our hallowed pages. So we dug this list of Landscaping Don’ts, because they all seem obvious in hindsight, but if you look around your neighborhood, you’ll see plenty of examples anyway.
- “Don’t let landscaping overwhelm your house.” How many of us have seen that one house on the block, referred to as “the jungle?” Probably the trees and hedges they planted there looked tidy enough at first, but it all grew out of control after a while.
- Lack of planning. A fun anecdote: When they designed the MIT University campus, they didn’t put sidewalks in for the first three months. Then they watched where footpaths naturally formed from people walking to and fro. So that’s where they ended up putting the sidewalks!
- Planting too much of the same thing – meh, we’ll give it a pass. Sometimes a theme is important.
- The huge lawn. You don’t need enough room for a rugby match in front of every house.
- Ivy is beautiful, but yes, it is a pain to maintain. Also dangerous to be teetering on a ladder trying to reach it.
- Trees overwhelming the house again. It bears repeating twice! Perhaps you should check out a full-grown species of a certain tree before planting the sapling.
- Layering your plant species. Always nice to do, if you have the space.
The Controversy Over Guerrilla Gardening
It’s a familiar sight to any urban city dweller. Vacant lots, abandoned commercial areas, and those random strips of land in between sidewalk and road. Usually bare, brown dirt or overrun with weeds. Who could disagree that a city looks better and happier with a lush little bit of landscaping in that place instead?
Taking a cue from Johnny Appleseed, hobbyist gardeners are throwing a few seeds around to revitalize these orphaned patches of land. First there’s Guerrilla Gardening, a blog urging readers to “pimp your pavement” through the use of “seed bombs.” According to WebEcoist, a typical seed bomb might be “a condom filled with fertilizer, water and wildflower seeds.” Imagine explaining this to your mother when she catches you making them in the kitchen sink.
It’s taking England by storm, even to the point of tending graveyards.
But, as noted by The Huffington Post, this really is illegal! In some cases it’s private property, and in others it’s just one of those gray areas where it’s a strip of public land that nobody’s going to care about… until somebody starts taking care of it, at which point it becomes a point of liability, or unauthorized use of government land, or something.
Drive Yourself Up A Wall With Vertical Gardens
The great thing about vertical gardening is that you can do a lot while not taking up too much space. It’s ideal for small property lots – even for things like apartment balconies.
What can be done with a vertical garden?
- Decorate a bathroom – How’s that for using a tight space?
- Decorate a hallway – This can really wake up a sleepy office environment.
- Create an edible garden wall – Now, that is class and style rolled together. The food is actually used on site. Can’t get fresher than that!
- Use bamboo shoots for vertical planters – A stunningly obvious idea when you see it. They cut sections out of bamboo to make it a column of little planter spaces, then planted small decorative plants in them.
One more site to share is Jungle Walls, with lots of video footage and images for inspiration. You might never want to garden on flat land again!
It’s Come To This: Eco-Shaming Celebrities
Hey, here’s some hot gossip about a famous celebrity scandal. But if you thought this was going to be about her getting caught with illicit substances or the dish on who she’s landed between the sheets, think again! No, it’s just that Celene Dion’s house guzzles six-and-a-half-million gallons of water per year! Yes, we thought we heard some monocles popping out there.
But it makes ecological sense to call attention to matters like this. While the rest of us common plebes get nagged every time we hose down the driveway for wasting water, top-billed celebrities get to spray gallons over their lush gardens, flush tons through the pipes for their homemade waterfalls and fountains, and gurgle swimming pools full of water that just sits there unused. Water conservation applies to millionaire celebrities, too!
As this Stanford graduate study suggests, publicly shaming individuals and institutions who are wasteful with natural resources might be a pretty effective method to control it. Maybe Celine Dion isn’t really going to care about this, though. She might not even read landscaping blogs, right?
Rock Landscaping Rocks!
We always like seeing the humble rock get its fair due in landscaping discussions. There is so much more to landscaping with rock than just dropping a few boulders around – a well-thought-out landscape design that incorporates rock is a work of art. You can invoke a quiet mountain stream, a rough desert canyon, a natural grotto, a magic troll forest, or anything else you can imagine.
Healthy Home Smart has some tips on getting started with rock landscaping. And now for some decorative ideas: Check out these photos from Rock & Rose for just some of the expression that rock can do. Here’s a tip on how to make moss grow on your landscape rocks and garden statuary. And one last bit of inspiration, how to use rock landscaping to deal with run-off water and be beautiful at the same time.
Check Your Local Laws Before Doing Anything Drastic With Your Lawn
This is one of those “bureaucracy gone mad” stories that you hear about every now and then. Boing Boing recently reported on a couple who replaced their grass lawn with drought-tolerant plants – and got sued by the city! While this takes place in Orange County, California, US (world-famous for invasive government that micromanages your every move!), and the prosecutors look like they’ll drop the case now (as much for the bad publicity as for anything else), it is worth giving some thought.
It seems counter-intuitive that you can buy and own property and not be able to do anything you want with it, but many first-world economies have strict rules as to what you can and can’t do. The fact that many of these laws counter-act water conservation efforts just points up how nonsensical some of these laws are. As well as regional laws of government, you should also check building ordinances and home-owner’s associations – we’ve seen massive legal fights break out over what color to paint a fence or what kind of tree you can plant.
It also does good to be aware of ridiculous laws so citizens can lobby together to get them repealed. In Southern California’s case with the huge water shortage that part of the world has suffered for about a century now, doing anything to save water should be rewarded, not punished.
Tip For The Outdoor Living Space
The part of your landscaping plan that is perhaps the most important is the part you’re going to be using. An outdoor patio, deck, or porch will be your place to enjoy the outdoors and entertain. Here’s a good guide to the basics of Creating a High-End Outdoor Space on a Low-end Budget. In addition, looking at that photo of the table and chairs reminded us of the comfort-point, so we’d like to offer some tips:
Watch what you’re planting overhead to make sure it doesn’t interfere with your enjoyment. Those magnolia blossoms look great, but think about how you’ll have to fish them out of your morning coffee when you sit there.
Chose a stable flooring for the patio area that’s low-maintenance. You can’t go wrong with rock! Just be sure that it isn’t breaking up and forming muddy crags and holes to catch a heel on.
Have a plan for weather. An umbrella or dense trees will shade you from sun, but also think what the rain and snow will do to your outdoor living space furnishings.
Take note of the local pests. You’ll want citronella torches in mosquito country. Watch out for termites with wood furniture. And you might consider an elevated deck altogether,if your area is just crawling with horrid little monsters thriving on your ecosystem.
Have the decor go with the landscape. You might be able to get away with furnishing your ranch patio with wooden cable spools and wagon wheels, but that will never fly for your Japanese tea garden!
Technological Advances in Landscape Gardening
Landscaping is not only a passion but a profession in the world today. Therefore along with the evolution of all other professions, landscaping too has now reached its height. Gone are the days when people had to sow and then wait to reap the benefits. There are many landscaping software’s available in the market today that will not only assist in the landscaping process but also predict the evolution of your garden within a period of time.
3D landscaping was initially only used to aid with the architecture and design of a landscape. This is where the programmer would plot out your future garden on a computer and then enable you to see immediately how it would look while enabling you to shift features virtually around your landscape in order to see what looks better where. This method saved serious time and money in the landscaping process because shifting something once the landscape is implemented costs hard work, time and money. Therefore if you’re interested in landscape designing, knowing how to work on landscaping software will be an immense help to your profession.
Other technological advances such as the use of ornamental plants in various unusual colors and new fertilizers and herbicides have also helped speed up the growth process of a landscape immensely. Don’t fight the trends, go with it and find yourself enveloped in a hassle free world of landscape design and implementation.
Taking Care of Your Lawn
Trudge along to your lawn and think about if you’ve treated it with the care it deserves these past few months. If not, then start now. Your lawn is not only a beautiful addition to your household, but a great benefit to the environment in your whole neighborhood. If you think that you already have a healthy lawn, and then think about making it healthier. There’s nothing like the smell of freshly cut grass to top off an already beautiful day.
Always make sure to mow your lawn high, regularly and with sharp blades. This should be done as tall grass provides more shade for the soil and therefore helps keep weeds from germinating as your lawn is cooler. Tending to the soil is also another extremely important factor to have a healthy lawn. Watering your lawn regularly is also essential in producing strong grass in your garden. Always pick a type of grass that grows with minimum hassle in your climate. Aerate your lawn in order to help the fertilizer and water reach the root of the grass.
When tending to your lawn, always make sure that you have the necessary tools to do a good job as it is a crucial factor. Nurture and nourish your lawn; you will not regret the effort.
New Trends in Landscaping
Gone are the days when people judged a person but their homes. Today your landscape design too can tell a lot about who you really are. So get savvy with your landscapes by using new and improved landscaping technologies to truly reap the benefits of a well landscaped yard. Use your garden as a reflection of your style and personality.
Some argue that naturescaping or incorporating native plants in to a landscape design is the new way to go, while others disagree and opt for using ornamental features in their landscapes; some on the other hand choose a middle path.
Naturescaping is indeed easier to maintain though it isn’t necessarily unique in comparison with other more innovative landscape designs. You do not want to be stuck with a “badscape design” after all! Therefore the incorporation of both native plants and ornamental plants and grasses could enable your landscape to give a whole new definition of innovation in to your very own front yard.
Be creative and different with your landscapes. Use mega blooms instead of seedlings, do away with your bedding plants and replace them with speciality annuals. Don’t only think of landscaping if your yard is large. Landscaping and maintaining small areas are actually quite a hit in the landscaping industry today. Have a big landscape in a small yard.
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Perth Landscaping