Category Archives: Yard & Outdoors

Summer Garden Pitfalls

Summer Garden Pitfalls

We all love learning great ways to create a summer garden fit to rival them all. What we do not really take the time to check out often enough are the things we should avoid when creating a summer garden. Learning the potential pitfalls of summer gardening can often lead to much better results in the long run while allowing you to learn these sometimes painful lessons from the mistakes of others rather than your own personal gardening flops and nightmares.

One thing that we are all guilty of is landscaping for the neighbor’s enjoyment. If you spend the vast majority of your free time in the great outdoors, this is one thing but if you are like the typical family you spend the vast majority of your time inside your home looking out. For this reason it is wise to plant your summer garden in an area that you can easily view from within the walls of your home rather than in an area that only the neighbors are likely to see on an average day. In other words, garden for your enjoyment and make it so that you actually get to view the benefits of your labor on any given day.

Avoid cluttering your lawn with too much of anything. Keep your summer garden on scale with your lawn. It will look completely out of place if you have too much in garden on a postage stamp lot and will look completely under maintained to have very little landscaping in your summer garden on a lot the size of a grand estate. Try to keep everything in perspective and appropriate to the amount of land available as well as the climate of the area in which you are planning your summer garden.

You should also avoid looking as though you have no plan in your summer garden landscaping and design. Planning is the most important thing you can do for your summer garden. Without a solid plan upon which to build the design of your summer garden your garden is doomed to either fail or look as though it was poorly planned and executed. Invest the largest portion of time and energy towards the planning stage of your summer garden in order to achieve the best possible results.

Another common pitfall when planning and creating summer gardens is failing to consider the long-term implications of the plants and flowers selected for the garden. If you are not interested in heavy maintenance it makes little sense to purchase plants and flowers that are high maintenance by nature. Select plants according to your summer garden needs and not simply because you think they look good in a brochure or on the store shelves.

If you take a little time to make a concerted effort towards properly planning your summer gardens according to your personal tastes and the desired level of maintenance you wish to invest in keeping your garden in top form you will find that you will enjoy your garden much more than if you throw some plants in the ground and hope for the best. One thing to remember is that while there are summer gardens that require a little less maintenance than others there is no such thing as a no maintenance garden. Expect to spend some time and effort keeping your garden looking sharp and in order.

Landscaping Around Trees

Landscaping Around Trees

Most homes have a few trees in the yard. Since they provide shade when it is too hot outside, it is only right that you landscape around the trees to make part of the beautiful scenery.

So how do you do that? The first thing you have to do is get in touch with arborist, a horticulturist or a forester. This is because planting around trees the wrong way can damaged the roots and kill the tree. Once they have established a protected root zone, you will be able to plant flowers and shrubs without any problems.

Instead of planting these on the ground, you can use planted boxes which does a great job of reducing mower damage. If you do decide to use these, be sure to maintain the soil at the original level and that the installation edging materials do not cut the tree roots.

The water requirement for plants and trees are also different. For instance, grass and plants have to be watered daily or three times a week. While the tree on the other hand only needs one application.

To prevent this from happening, you should also construct an irrigation system that is able to cater to the needs of both. You can make this happen by putting the water lines in one corridor outside the protected root zone.

But if it has to go through, make sure bore a hole only two feet below grade. Again, the improper way of doing this will compromise the tree’s stability and health.

But what if you suspect that something is wrong with tree? For that, you will have to inspect the base of the tree.

All trees have a natural root flare located at the base. If there is no flare and there is an excess fill, this has to be removed in order to save the life of the tree. Some of the work can be done by hand while the rest is done with a machine.

So if you want to landscape around trees, it is best to lay a 2 to 4 inch later of organic mulch at the base of the tree and then extend this outward to the protected root zone. Examples of these include wood chips and shredded bark. They must not be piled up against the tree trunk because this keeps the bark wet that leads to the growth of bacteria and fungi.

You must not also use landscaping fabrics or sheet plastic underneath mulch because they prevent oxygen and water going to the roots of the trees.

It is advised to prone out dead, low and rubbing branches. You must never pull on the healthy ones because this will reduce the tree’s ability to withstand heavy winds.

Irrigation must be done in the absence of precipitation. This should be done regularly during the fall until the ground freezes with periods that allows the soil to dry.

If you follow the tips mentioned, you will soon have a nice yard that surrounds a tree. Of course landscaping around trees is just one way to make your yard look good. But as this case has shown, planting flowers or shrubs into the ground and watering them is not as easy as it looks because you also have to pay attention the needs of the tree so both will be able to live.

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