Home Furniture

The beauty and tranquility that a water garden adds to any outdoor area is more than enough incentive to create one of these stunning landscaping features in your backyard. However, there are benefits to a water garden that go beyond the pleasant hedonism of enjoying the unique aesthetic pleasures of a water garden. A water garden is as great for the environment as it is pleasant for homeowners. (more…)

Tags: air, area, atmosphere, backyard, balance, Beauty, conserving water, continual stream, deep breath, Environment, environmental experts, environmental impact, fact, garden, gardeners, green grass, hedonism, help, hydration, impact, impurities, incentive, Landscaping, lawns, life, moving water, negative ions, plant, purify, rain storm, shrubs, tangible proof, tranquility, water, water consumption, water garden, water gardens, water releases, Watering

There are plenty of possible reasons why the water garden has become such a popular landscaping feature in recent years, and different garden design professionals have different theories as to why this gardening style with strong classical roots has suddenly caught on. One of the most widely accepted theories for the explosion in water garden popularity has to do with the fact that life outside the home is getting more and more hectic. In a world where cell phones and laptops keep us constantly on the communications grid, it can be difficult to escape from the pressures of work. A water garden provides the ultimate contrast to the frenzied pace of modern living, and it makes home an oasis where it is possible to get away from the demands of the rest of the world. (more…)

Tags: backyards, California, cell, city, city gardens, classical roots, control features, design, design professionals, Earth, ecosystem, evaporation, explosion, fact, feature, feature water, fish birds, frenzied pace, frogs, gallon, garden, gardeners, Gardening, harmful pesticides, home, Illinois, landscape designers, Landscaping, life, natural pest control, oases, peace, popularity, precious water, Rockford, San Francisco, Sheffield, staple, style, today, trend, United Kingdom, water, water garden, water gardens, world

Planning and creating a water garden is a complex exercise in aesthetics. In the process of constructing a visually harmonious water garden that is pleasant to look at, you will develop skills that will serve you well in many other realms of your life. The process of arranging a balance of different kinds of plants and animals in order to create an overall impression of lushness while still maintaining calm will develop your visual sense so that you will start to look at everything with the eyes of a professional designer.
(more…)

Tags: aesthetic sense, aesthetics, balance, better sense, bird of paradise, blooming flower, calm, design, designer, different kinds of plants, exercise, flower, free zone, fundamental concepts, garden, home, impression, kind, life, lingo, order, Planning, plants and animals, playground, process, professional designer, sense, smooth rocks, style, tall flower, time, trial and error, visual experience, visual harmony, visual sense, water, water garden, water lily, yard, zone

If you would like to upgrade and improve the landscaping that encompasses your home and garden areas but are struggling to know how and where to get started with such a project, then there are many different places that you can look to for great ideas. You might get inspired just by driving through a favorite neighborhood and seeing a landscape design that really “speaks to you.” You could stop and take a picture or even see if the owner is home and ask about how they were able to create such beauty.

You can also get many ideas from the numerous books and magazines that are published on the topic of landscapes and design. And, these days there are many resources available online for designing and embellishing the landscape around your home. Many of these websites even offer sample landscape design plans, pictures of various ideas, tips from the experts for do-it-yourselfers, and contact information for professional landscape designers in your area.

Two of the most common elements that are utilized as centerpieces for landscaping design plans are patios and decks. These outdoor structures are popular because they provide a structure and they add considerable function to the home, while increasing the outdoor living area.

Patios and decks give you a wonderful place to host family gatherings and other types of entertainment. At the same time, a small patio can be added to a special garden area to create a place to get away to relax and be refreshed by the beauty of the natural surroundings. Adding decks and patios, or making improvements to existing ones, is also a great way to add value to your home and increase your equity.

More and more often, fountains are becoming features of home and garden landscaping. There are the traditional, multi-tiered fountains that are reminiscent of country estates and European villas and which can bring old world charm to your surroundings.

There are also the more modern fountains that utilize unique rocks and stones or huge ceramic pots which are becoming very popular in some types of landscape architecture. Of course there are many other beautiful and creative styles available to meet any taste and style.

Rock gardens are becoming quite popular as well. These have the benefit of being very attractive, but they generally incorporate very few, if any, plants. This makes them very low maintenance as they require either no watering, or very little, virtually no weeding, and in general need almost no attention, except to sit back and admire how your rock garden adds to your overall landscape design.

Emulating an English cottage garden is another popular inspiration for many home and garden settings. Such gardens are particularly noted for their overall lack of a formal plan.

There is very little rigidity in design with English cottage gardens because the whole concept behind them is to let the plants “just grow” and develop in a more natural, or organic, way. These gardens have a certain special charm to them and often make people feel more relaxed and embraced by nature.

Lush green lawns are probably the most common and largest element of the majority of landscaping design plans. A beautiful lawn is popular because it gives the homeowners a place where the family can enjoy many different activities. Lawns are also one of the easiest of landscape elements to take care of and they stay beautiful for many years with simple maintenance routines.

Mike Selvon’s portal will expand your knowledge on innovative landscaping ideas. Visit us and leave a comment at our landscaping ideas blog where a free gift awaits you.

Tags: area, Beauty, centerpieces, ceramic pots, charm, Cottage, decks and patios, design, different places, English, family, family gatherings, garden, garden areas, garden landscaping, home, home and garden, improvements, landscape, landscape design, landscapes, Landscaping, landscaping design, maintenance, Mike Selvon, natural surroundings, neighborhood, Online, outdoor structures, owner, patios and decks, picture, place, professional landscape designers, project, rock, rocks and stones, tiered fountains, topic, way, wonderful place, world charm

Planting done near to the house foundation, is of great importance because it may make or break the appearance of the home as it is seen from the street. Yet, it is often done with little understanding of the problems involved; disappointing results are all too common.

There will always be differences of opinion as to the kinds of plants to be used. Some prefer narrow-leaved evergreens, some want flowering shrubs, and still others use a combination of the two. Narrow-leaved evergreens will provide green color through the year with some variation in the different varieties.

Flowering shrubs will have bare stems in winter, some of which are very colorful, but will give an informal effect, as well as life and color to the planting during the summer. Broad-leaved evergreens, where they may be grown successfully, will be green throughout the year and give some flower color in spring. With these facts in mind each home owner should use the plants of his choice.

Pit the Planting to Style of House

Probably there is better reason for more planting around the base of a house having a high foundation wall exposed above the soil line than there is around a house with low foundation walls. A large-growing shade tree placed 15 to 20 feet from the corner of a house minimizes rather effectively the high appearance of a house that is narrow and upright. Plants with a horizontal branching habit help, as do structural devices such as window boxes, window blinds,

Regardless of the kinds of plants to be selected, they should all be chosen and planted in positions where they will not be too large for the area when they mature. Most home owners can get agreeable results by working with enlarged photographs, beginning with a picture of the front of the house and then views of the other sides.

Drawings, made to scale, of each elevation of the house can be used with equal effectiveness. In either case, place a piece of tracing paper over the photograph or drawing and, with a soft pencil or crayon, block in the various foliage masses you think will look best.

Usually it is best to have low-growing shrubs at the sides of the doorway, somewhat symmetrically space.. All entrance plantings, however, need not be symmetrical. If there is an unbroken, large wall space at one side of the door, a tree-form shrub or a vine might fill that space and provide an attractive variation from the more usual design.

In the case of a split-level house, taller growing shrubs or small trees may be used at the high corners and the low corners may be treated as for a one-story house.

What planting is done along wall spaces will be governed largely by the length of that wall and the location of the door, windows, and wall spaces. Uninterrupted wall spaces, several feet wide, between a door and a window or between two windows, may need a foliage mass somewhat higher than the window sill.

Sometimes a small-growing tree is planted beside a window to provide shade, to block the view from the street into the room, or for some less obvious reason, such as variety from the more usual design. If either of these plantings is located somewhat to one side of the wall space, it will usually be more interesting than one set exactly in the middle. Also, the length and height of each wall space will be the clue for the kind and number of plants to be used. A large wall space usually will require more plants and taller-growing ones.

Above all, planning will help you to decide the type of plants most suited to your house.

Who Else Wants Simple Free Gardening Tips?

Click Here For Free Online Ebook
http://www.freegardeningtip.org/

Tags: appearance, better reason, case, case place, color, combination of the two, design, door, elevation, flower color, flowering shrubs, foliage, foundation, foundation wall, foundation walls, habit, high foundation, home, house, little understanding, photograph, planting, reason, shade, shade tree, side, sides drawings, soft pencil, soil line, space, stems, street, tracing paper, tree, variation, wall, window, window blinds, window boxes, year