Friday, January 22nd, 2010

On Choosing Plants For Your Garden

Anyone can plant a few flowers, but it takes a special sort of mind to grasp garden design. Many of the best gardeners come from an engineering background, with the ability to draw up diagrams, create timetables for planting and measure the perfect plot for the construction of raised beds. However, there are also many avid gardeners from the art/aesthetic side of things. They understand color very well and have no trouble researching garden advice on what plants look best next to one another. Perhaps this is why many American couples with very different skills come together to assemble the perfect garden, using a little bit of right brain and a little bit of left brain thinking.

Naturally, choosing the right plants is a particularly important facet of garden design. One strategy you might use is to choose a theme for your garden. At www.gardenplans.com/beds.html, you can buy garden blueprints and get expert gardening advice for different themes, such as Container Gardening plans, Wildlife Gardens, Getaway Gardens (sun or shade), Island Gardens, Corner Gardens, Food and Flower Gardens, Herb Gardens, Border Gardens, Moonlight Gardens, Late Summer Gardens, Two Story Deck Gardens and more. For just .95, you’ll get a full-color garden-scape painting, an overhead plan view, a blueprint planting plan, gardening tips for perennial flowers, a detailed plant list with cold/heat tolerance, a shopping list to bring to the nursery and a two page article on “How to Prepare Great Garden Beds.”

Lastly, be mindful of color in your garden design. A gardening expert will tell you that it’s best to cluster several different flower varieties with the same shade or hue next to one another, or use complementary colors across from one another on the color wheel — like blue and orange. Warm reds, yellows and orange make a lively, bold atmosphere, whereas subdued blues, purples and greens are more tranquil and relaxing. You should repeat some of the same colors here and there to create a sense of unity in your special space. Sound confusing? Hit the internet and look at some pictures to gather ideas before you begin!

If you feel you have the desire to change the look of your home from its usual façade, then it is time for you to meet Tania Hurtis. She is the brains of home improvement. She can change our homes into a style you never imagine possible. Call her now and experience her talents, especially her recommended tools of choice like measuring wheels, precision tools and so on.

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Flower Gardening Is A Good Hobby

Perhaps you’ve made up your mind to create a garden that can be enjoyed by not only you, but by nature’s insects, birds and creatures too. Yet, do you have many gardening questions that need to be answered? Flower gardening for wildlife involves several different components. Most creatures like to live near a water feature, where they can get hydrated on those warm summer days. Birds are especially drawn to fountains full of circulating water. They also like to dwell near a food source. This means different things for different animals, of course, so you’ll need to do your research. Creatures also like places of shelter, such as rocks, bird houses or ground cover, for example.

If you’re interested in creating a garden that will attract song birds, then you can add a few special shrubs, annuals, perennials, native and cultivated plants to draw them to your yard. By growing plants from each group, you can provide fruits and seeds for all seasons to keep your feathered friends singing all year long. Be sure to add a bird bath and throw seeds out in the winter to keep your bird clan happy. Also, consider that in addition to your flowers, birds like trees for nesting, protection and shelter from the elements. Sometimes the trees even provide food like sap, seeds and berries. You can consider deciduous trees like dogwood, red mulberry, American mountain ash, sassafras, hazelnut, chestnut and black walnut, as well as evergreen trees like American holly, red cedar, blue spruce, Douglas fir, white cedar, ponderosa pine and California juniper.

You may want to also consider flower gardening to attract red ladybugs and dragonflies too. These carnivores will eat the unsightly aphids, beetles, flies, mosquitoes and other pesky creatures that are doing damage to your garden. Favorite ladybug dinners include cilantro, dill, fennel, chamomile, cosmos, geraniums, penstemon, yarrow and coreopsis. Water gardens that are generally shallow but two feet deep in the center are the best way to lure dragonflies, who enjoy a cool swim and places to hide beneath garden plants. They also like pond lilies, buttonbush, seedbox and horsetail rush, as these provide the sort of cover dragonflies like.

If you’re flower gardening to attract butterflies, then you will need a place for the insects to gather water, to seek solace from the sun and predators, as well as sources to breed and feed. With the exception of monarchs and other migrators, butterflies generally don’t like to migrate too far from what they need, so if your yard has it all, you’re likely to keep these beautiful insects around. Garden supplies stores online sometimes sell butterflies from farms that you can let loose in your backyard once it’s all set up to jumpstart the process.

If you feel you have the desire to change the look of your home from its usual façade, then it is time for you to meet Tania Hurtis. She is the brains of home improvement. She can change our homes into a style you never imagine possible. Call her now and experience her talents, especially her recommended tools of choice like measuring wheels, precision tools and so on.