Posts for 'Garden' Category

Gardens can be created either indoors or outdoors. There are different types of garden that you can have in your very own home. Some of the gardens that many nature lovers like to possess is that of fruit gardens, flower gardens, vegetable gardens, herbs and the very new type is that of organic gardens.

Outdoor gardens are the most common and most loved by all , as it gives you a beautiful sight of nature to see your fruits and vegetables grow well enriched with care. Here are a few tips that will help you , for an outdoor garden.

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Do you wonder whether planting edibles in your landscape is worth the work? If you are reluctantly considering your first garden or first in years, let me reassure you - from my experience and studies made by the National Gardening Association - that a garden pays you.

The average gardening family spends $70 a year on their garden if they grow all kinds of foods, $53 for only vegetable. It isn't like motorcycle racing or even golf. You can afford to try it. Especially since the average the return can reach $530.

Sixty cents of every dollar you spend in the supermarket goes for something other than food: transportation, processing, paper and plastic packaging, advertising, etc.

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My neighbor Bob, who is one of my gardening mentors, told me after several failed attempts to grow foxglove and delphiniums that I did not have an English garden and there was nothing I could do to grow one in the heat and humidity of Maryland.

I gave in and planted Echinecea and Russian sage instead, but that did nothing to dampen my desire to have the kind of garden you find in the countryside of England - or in the Pacific Northwest for that matter.That's why this coffee table book, The English Garden, published by Phaidon Press, is so wonderful.

It is a collection of pictures from 100 English gardens - from a painting of Sir Thomas More's family, against the backdrop of a classic Tudor garden, to the National Lottery Garden, decorated with colorful steel spheres inspired by the numbered balls in England's National Lottery.The perfect book for a rainy Sunday afternoon - and a cuppa tea.

It has been designed by Swedish landscape architect Ulf Nordfjell, who returns to Chelsea Flower Show for a second time following his gold medal-winning debut appearance in 2007 with his garden "A Tribute to Linnaeus''.

"This year, I wanted to honour British traditions. I thought it would be interesting to mix your heritage of cottage gardening with Scandinavian modernism, and to flirt with the English style."  With a degree in biology and botany, and a well-honed skill as a ceramicist, Nordfjell combines a deep love of landscape, instilled in him as a child in the north of Sweden.

With a passion for contemporary design. In his gardens, he is known for his sharp-edged, minimalist distillations of wild nature - forest glade and dark tarn reinterpreted as formal courtyard and steel canal, or meadow wildflowers marshalled into perfect lines and blocks. And at Chelsea Flower Show 2009, he gives cottage gardening a similar treatment, dissecting its elements and remoulding them in modern sculptural forms.

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If you’ve large space at your roof, it’s better if you make a roof garden, you can relax here and took a walk in the fresh air. But to design the roof garden isn’t easy. These the contemporary roof garden inspiration images from mylandscapes.

This roof garden was called “Battersea”, The design of this penthouse garden takes advantage of the woodland beyond. The hardwood deck continues from the interior’s wooden floor to curve around a waterfall and merge into a 4-hole putting green. You can get a party or sunbathed here. It’s nice.

Homeowners have become inspired to integrate their garden with their interiors, and vice versa. Terraces mean that outdoor garden areas have become an extension of the home and an ideal introduction to your garden. It is a room with the best view in the house.

Because terrace areas are a merger of garden and interiors, you should apply the same interior design principles for your garden room.A well-decorated terrace can have relaxed seating areas, dining areas, design pieces and clever lighting.

Barring a roof, you have all the necessary features of a room to play with including entrances, flooring, walls and furniture pieces.

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Are you green enough?It is an odd question, certainly, when asked outside the context of St. Patrick's Day. Get used to it; we'll continue to ride the groundswell of green into 2009 as environmental stewardship permeates every facet of day-to-day living. But it will be tempered by the Go Lean movement -- a byproduct of economic uncertainty.

What does that mean for the average household? More home-grown produce, less store-bought extravagance and no weekends financed on credit cards.Furniture will be smaller and multifunctional, interiors will make greater use of Earth-friendly products from bamboo floors to clay-coated walls, and harnessing the sun's energy will become cost-effective.

Greater belt-tightening doesn't mean sack-cloth and ashes. Helping us escape the gloom and doom will be brighter colors -- yellow in particular."The color yellow exemplifies the warmth and nurturing quality of the sun, properties we as humans are naturally drawn to for reassurance," said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute.

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September can be too hot to think about fall planting -- or to do much of anything but water. Just remember that even if Santa Ana winds kick up the temperatures, the days are short and the sun is low, new plants can still thrive.

Wind in the willows-Santa Ana winds can cause plants to wilt temporarily because they pull moisture from leaves faster than the plants can replace it. Leaves most likely will perk up in the evening. If not, you may need to water.

Trees can be more susceptible. Winds can snap young trunks and break branches on even the sturdiest specimens. Make sure young plants are staked properly. Tie the trunk between two posts, about 6 inches to either side, with something flexible. It should be able to sway a little and build up strength. Strips of old bicycle inner tubes work well. On especially thin trunks, you may need more than one set of ties. Larger trees will need strong ties.

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As backyard vegetable gardens undergo a renaissance, environmental officials and scientists are warning homeowners to be careful before planting the carrots and chard: There might be lead in the soil.

Flakes of lead paint from old homes often create a halo of contamination around houses that vegetables can take up. Remnants of leaded gasoline might also be in the soil, especially near busy roads. While the problem is pervasive in urban areas, suburban homes that were built on or near apple orchards are also at risk because lead arsenate was once used regularly as a pesticide. The heavy metal can remain in soil for hundreds of years.

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An art-obsessed gardener has mown the Mona Lisa into her lawn.Tania Ledger, from Croydon, employed a 3D art expert who reconstructed the famous painting for the The Da Vinci Code film to do the same in her garden.

Chris Naylor took two days to replicate Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece in grass, using a small lawnmower and a handful of garden tools.The design will grow out within a few weeks but Mrs Ledger, 48, says that is what made the project so exciting.

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