All About Garden Treasures Patio

After the garden furniture shopping is done and the furniture all in its place, now is the time to go for the garden treasures patio. Look at the overall layout of your patio get a sense of the accessory that would compliment that spot. The garden treasure patio is all about adding your own personal touch and style to your special domain. If you live in a site that only has a small courtyard to work with, you might want to consider things that hang rather than placed on the ground taking up walk space. If you want to grow plants with eatable fruits such as strawberries or tomatoes, there are many creative ways to grow these plants, such as in hanging baskets, in small confined spaces. A window box is a perfect spot for growing herbs that will be used fresh from your garden patio to the current spaghetti sauce or other savory dish. Wall art can be hung on the wall nearest your garden patio to complete the look of your garden treasure patio. To add shading to your garden treasure patio you can find a trellis and incorporate a sprouting vine to the spaces.

If your garden treasure patio is a much larger area, you can find additional novelty items to enhance the atmosphere of your garden treasure patio. You may want to turn a small space into a kitchen or grilling area for those outdoor barbecues. For the warmer months, a small fountain gives the garden treasure patio a peaceful ambience. The soothing sound of running water will aid in relaxing you while you read or just rejuvenate yourself from a hard day at work. A fountain will not be a distraction when entertaining guests, instead would add a measure of character to your garden treasure patio. For the cooler months, a fireplace would be another highlight to your garden treasure patio. The warmth of a fire and watching the glow of burning embers is as peaceful and soothing as the fountain in the warmer months.

Your garden treasure patio might be in need of shading from the scorching sun during the hot summer months or maybe to protect you and your guests from a quiet falling rain in the spring. Then you will want to check into awnings, canopies, or other structures made for the purpose of adding cover. An umbrella works for a small space. If, however you are looking to cover a much larger region, you will need a much larger cover. These coverings come in several different sizes and construction. You will want to find what works best for you in your situation.

You may want to incorporate large tropical plants to your garden treasure patio. If so you will find an array of large pots and huge tropical plants to pick from. If you like the whimsical, you will discover small or large woodland creatures from gnomes, to squirrels to cute puppies that will add a special touch to your garden treasure patio.

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A Successful Garden Starts With Proper Planning By Creating A Plant Plan

Deciding where to put your perennials within the garden area is just as important as deciding which ones to plant. Sure, you can just go to your yard and start digging, but if you really want your perennials to grow beautifully and make a great impression on the property, you will need to do more than just knowing which flower to plant. You need to know the best site to put your flowers where they can grow healthy, show their beauty, and light up your home.

To figure out the best place for your flowerbed, you will need to take out your first set of tools: a pencil and paper. The first step is to draw out sketches in order to measure the advantages and disadvantages of each potential location. Next, you need to figure out the size of the flower bed to know exactly how many plants and flowers you need to plant to fill up the specified area. Planning your garden this way reduces the number of potential mistakes you could make as you create your landscape of perennials. Keep in mind that it is much easier to correct mistakes on your paper than to correct them in your garden.

Location, Location, Location…

When deciding on the perfect site for your flower bed, make a general inventory of your property. This is easier to do if you have a plat plan. A plat plan is a map that shows detailed sizes and boundaries of your land, as well as the placement of structures. If you do not have one, draw a simple diagram of your land area. You do not have to know the exact measurement of the boundaries and structures. However, make sure that you show the shape of all boundaries and the position of all structures.

Next, take a walk around your house and note down specific items that are listed on the diagram. If you have decided that you want the perennials in a specific site of your property, do an inventory of that area only.

The following features should be included in your diagram:

1. Relevant structures around the house such as shed or separate garage. Also include the location of driveways, sidewalks, sprinkle heads, drain spouts, terraces, decks, walkways, doors, windows, fences, overhangs, retaining walls, valve boxes, and built-in barbecues.

2. Include trees, plants, shrubs, and lawn areas that you already have. If your neighbors have any trees, shrubs, or hedges that shade your house, also include it in your diagram.

3. Look for ponds, ditches, streams, and slopes. Indicate erosion, low places, or any wet areas. Also indicate boulders or rocks.

4. Label the area that gets the most sun as well as the area that gets the most shade.

5. Mark the location of utilities such as boxes, meters, utility poles, underground wires, fire hydrants, water faucets, etc. Remember to contact the utility company before you start digging so you don’t accidentally dig into any underground electric wires.

5 Garden-Mulching Tips

Want a surefire way to improve your garden and landscape plantings and save yourself hours of work? Try mulching. Good mulches do have a softening effect, cushioning plants against the vagaries of the environment. And although they won’t eliminate all your gardening chores, they do make life easier for you, too.

Mulch helps hold moisture in the soil. During dry spells, mulched plantings often pull through while their unprotected counterparts bite the dust. Mulches help protect the soil from the evaporative effects of sun and wind, thereby keeping the soil from crusting over. Well-mulched soils tend to be loose and crumbly rather than hard-packed. Mulch also helps prevent heavy rains from pelting the soil and leaching out nutrients and helps curb soil erosion.

Mulch keeps weeds in check. Weeds have no place in the well-tended landscape. Besides being aesthetically unpleasing, they compete with other plants for moisture and nutrients. Mulch prevents many weeds from growing at all, and whatever weeds make it through a layer of mulch tend to be weak and spindly and easy to pull.

Mulch modulates soil temperatures. Mulch is also valuable to help keep soil cool in the heat of summer and warm when it begins to get cold outside. A good layer of mulch can help extend your growing season by a few weeks, and though it won’t keep your ground from freezing, it will help protect the roots of your perennial plantings.

Some mulches improve soil structure. Organic mulches begin to decompose after they’ve been set out, and this breakdown helps improve soil tilth. You can further this process by working organic mulch into the soil at the end of the growing season. Don’t worry that decaying mulch will tie up available nitrogen - the percentage of nitrogen that might be lost is minuscule and the loss won’t affect healthy soil.

The best kind of mulch to use depends on the primary effect you want to achieve. The material should be cheap, readily available, and attractive. If you’re looking to improve soil structure, contribute nutrients, and activate soil microorganisms, use an organic mulch such as compost, shredded bark, straw, chopped leaves, pine needles, or grass clippings. On the other hand, for total weed kill, black plastic is hard to beat. You can even lay it down in the fall and, come spring, you’ll have a fairly workable, weed-free bed to plant. Organic mulches and newspapers can be left on the soil and worked into it as they decompose. Plastic and foil mulches should be removed at the end of the growing season; they’re generally too full of holes to be reusable.

Mulching Tips

1. One of the best all-around mulches is compost. If you have a large enough compost pile, using this soil-building material to top-dress your beds will allow you to feed and mulch at the same time.

2. If you have an abundance of trees, you have an abundance of leaves, which you can save for the next growing season. Don’t use whole leaves, though, because they’ll mat. Chop them up with a shredder or run the lawnmower over them several times. It’s a good idea to leave them outside to weather for several months. Leaves contain growth-inhibiting phenols that should be allowed to leach away before they’re used.

3. Material such as hay and straw is often for sale by the bale at farms and garden centers. Wheat straw has a high carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, so it locks up nitrogen in the soil. Oat straw contains more nitrogen and therefore breaks down more quickly. Hay has twice as much nitrogen as straw, but is also likely to contain weed seeds, so it’s best used on the compost pile, not as mulch. Rain-spoiled hay is sometimes offered for sale at bargain prices.

4. Tree-trimming crews who work for the phone company or electric utility company often can be persuaded to dump wood chips on your property as they clear around phone and electric wires.

5. If you have a short supply of an aesthetically pleasing mulch, such as wood chips, and an abundance of less attractive material, such as newspapers, lay down the newspapers first and cover them with the chips. The newspapers do all the work but the eye sees only the neat layer of chips.

5 Daily Gardening Tools That Every Gardener Must Have

Successful gardening boils down to proper soil maintenance, plenty of watering, and nutrient feeding. None of these can be accomplished without having the right gardening tools. If you are like me then your garage is probably stocked with hundreds of different gardening tools, some new and some old. However, there are always that same handful of items that I never go a day without using. Below are a few examples:

1. Scissors: A pair of scissors should be at the forefront of your daily maintenance tools. If you do not have a pair yet then there is no need to go and buy anything real fancy. A lightweight pair of aluminum scissors that you can buy in any household item store will do just fine. You will use your gardening scissors to cut foliage and small stems. If you need to cut larger items (and you will) then pruning shears, which are listed next, will be another daily gardening tool you will stock.

2. Pruning shears: There are many types of pruning shears available, dozens really, so be sure to try out a few different pairs before you decide on stocking your inventory with one. It is also recommended that you try to shop for “bypass” pruning shears. This type will make a much cleaner cut than its rival: the “anvil” pruning shears.

Of course my choice is opinion based and you should test to see which works best for you. Unlike scissors, do not be afraid to pay a little extra when it comes to getting a dependable pair of pruning shears. They can be quite expensive but in the end it’s worth it. I’ve had my pair cutting strong for almost 4 years now and it’s been the best money I’ve spent as far as daily gardening tools are concerned.

3. Hand held watering bucket: As the name says, this is just a small watering can that you can carry by hand. Every gardener must spot-water now and again and there is nothing more handy than a nice watering pitcher.

4. Garden spade and/or shovel: Whenever you need to dig small holes in the soil, a shovel or garden spade will be needed. There are different variations here and you will have a different preference than other gardeners. I prefer using a round nosed shovel, while you may like to use the flat ended spade. If you are new to gardening then try both out for a while to see which one suits you best.

5. Hand trowel: This is the tool that you will use more than any other in your garden. With its similar appearance to a small shovel, a hand trowel is used to transplant bulbs and other small flowers. It comes in two different sizes, the larger which is made for digging, and the smaller size which is designed for weeding. Just like pruning shears, it never hurts to spend a little more money for quality.

3 Benefits Of Planting Perennials Inside Raised Beds

Some gardens and landscape areas just do not have the appropriate type of soil to grow beautiful perennials. Because of this challenge that you may face in your desire to raise these lovely flowers, you may want to consider planting them in raised beds.

What is a raised bed?

A raised bed is simply a boxed area where you are growing your plants in soil that are a few inches above your ground soil (or higher). The planter box may be tightly sealed in a small wooden frame or you could have soil that slopes over the sides. There are different types of raised beds that you can choose depending on the look you want.

Using a raised bed to plant perennials is extremely beneficial when you want to have 100% control the soil you are using, and without the battle of removing the salts out of the ground soil. Going to the trouble of clearing up poor conditioned ground soil is typically frustrating and unsuccessful, and can be very time-consuming as well.

What are the advantages of planting perennials in raised beds?

1. Raised beds offer a somewhat “directional” look to your garden. You can use these beds to form traffic patterns and walkways. Your garden design can look proportional with the setup of raised beds and it presents a clear walk-through path for people to avoid damaging your flowers. Using raised beds also creates a structured look and is very decorative, especially around the edges of driveways or other areas like patios and yard decks.

2. Planting your perennials and other flowers in raised beds can make it easy to garden if you or other members of your household are bound to a wheelchair. Raised beds can be built as high as you need them and what better way for the disabled gardener to enjoy their favorite hobby than by using raised beds to plant and grow their garden?

3. Raised beds also offer your perennials and other plants protection from damage and uprooting that often result from small pets and children running around. Even raised just a few inches off the ground, these beds can deter most damage from even the innocent person who is simply walking through your garden.

4. Last but not least, your perennials may enjoy a longer growing season as a benefit of being grown inside of a raised bed. If they are constructed from brick or stone, the soil stays warm longer than it would if it were in the ground.

3 Benefits Of Planting Perennials Inside Raised Beds

Some gardens and landscape areas just do not have the appropriate type of soil to grow beautiful perennials. Because of this challenge that you may face in your desire to raise these lovely flowers, you may want to consider planting them in raised beds.

What is a raised bed?

A raised bed is simply a boxed area where you are growing your plants in soil that are a few inches above your ground soil (or higher). The planter box may be tightly sealed in a small wooden frame or you could have soil that slopes over the sides. There are different types of raised beds that you can choose depending on the look you want.

Using a raised bed to plant perennials is extremely beneficial when you want to have 100% control the soil you are using, and without the battle of removing the salts out of the ground soil. Going to the trouble of clearing up poor conditioned ground soil is typically frustrating and unsuccessful, and can be very time-consuming as well.

What are the advantages of planting perennials in raised beds?

1. Raised beds offer a somewhat “directional” look to your garden. You can use these beds to form traffic patterns and walkways. Your garden design can look proportional with the setup of raised beds and it presents a clear walk-through path for people to avoid damaging your flowers. Using raised beds also creates a structured look and is very decorative, especially around the edges of driveways or other areas like patios and yard decks.

2. Planting your perennials and other flowers in raised beds can make it easy to garden if you or other members of your household are bound to a wheelchair. Raised beds can be built as high as you need them and what better way for the disabled gardener to enjoy their favorite hobby than by using raised beds to plant and grow their garden?

3. Raised beds also offer your perennials and other plants protection from damage and uprooting that often result from small pets and children running around. Even raised just a few inches off the ground, these beds can deter most damage from even the innocent person who is simply walking through your garden.

4. Last but not least, your perennials may enjoy a longer growing season as a benefit of being grown inside of a raised bed. If they are constructed from brick or stone, the soil stays warm longer than it would if it were in the ground.

Caring for your Fishes: Proper Pond Oxygenation

Pond fishes are very delicate to handle. Proper caring
for fishes inside your pond requires daily
maintenance. Unlike fishes that are living freely
amongst the different bodies of water, pond fishes
require more special attention. Because all they do is
swim and wait for food to be served, there are only
few details on how to check if your fish is feeling
sick or if they are given proper care.

Oxygenation is one very, very important factor that an
owner has to consider. This can never be depleted in
the everyday agenda. You have to check if your fish
are receiving the proper oxygen that they need to get
through the day.

Proper oxygenation is needed especially during the
summer when oxygen is rapidly depleting. The scenario
would be like this: During summertime, the water in
your fish pond becomes warm because of the heat that
rotates around your surroundings. And as the water
becomes warm, the lesser oxygen it holds. Ironically,
fishes during summer tend to metabolize food faster
than any other season. This has made more reason to
need an increased amount of oxygen. Good thing if you
have only a minimal number of fishes living inside
your pond. You dont have to worry about their
oxygenation. Although, of your really love collecting
fish and every single kind of fish is situated inside
your pond, and sadly, your pond is just the size of
your bath tub, this will result to grievous problem.
Its because the more fish there is inside a small
pond, the more oxygen is needed. When oxygen becomes
depleted, your fishes can experience insurmountable
amount of stress and can turn diseased. Some may
occasionally die.

Another factor that increases the depletion of oxygen
is that when fishes are over fed. Obviously, when
fishes tend to be fed in a large amount, there are two
things that can be expected: one, there is a greater
need for oxygenation because of rapid and increased
metabolism of food; two, when fishes can no longer eat
the food, it will be suspended inside the pond
permanently and organisms living inside the food tend
to decompose waste which still consumes oxygen.

Plants also share the benefit of oxygen that is
available. While people think that plants only use up
carbon dioxide to produce oxygen, that occurs only
during the wake of day. But when sunlight is absent,
plants still contribute to the intake of oxygen inside
the pond.

What are the different measure that you can do to
solve the oxygenation problem? Here are some:

1. If you have an overpopulated pond, lessen the
number. This can be painful for the owner to do but if
can be quite helpful to save more fish lives. This can
be considered as your last resort.

2. Use aerating devices like waterfalls or fountains
especially during the night or if medication is given.
Keep the performance at a maximum level.

3. Frequent, small changes in water can lessen the
presence of microorganisms and chemicals that consume
oxygen.

4. Remove excess algae and debris.

5. Carefully feed your fish by giving small, frequent
feedings. If in excess, remove food that are uneaten
at once.

Remember, proper oxygenation is equivalent to
healthier fishes properly cared for living inside your
pond.

BACKYARD FISH PONDS: A HOW TO

Aesthetics

Recently, one of the most popular backyard designs is adding a water pond or a fish pond to the yard. These projects, however, can only be achieved in sprawling and huge yards that has walkways and large areas. But if you are really certain to have your own fish pond and yet you do not have a large back yard, there are design ideas that can be incorporated to hopefully place your pond in it without having to take up too much space and dominate your yard.

Let your pond serve as the focal point of your back yard. Place it in the middle or in one corner of the yard if you have a small space. Make it appealing to the people walking around the house.

Location

If you wish to place it in the corner part of the yard, raise the pond a little higher so that the fish will seem as a surprise to the visitors. But if you want to place it in the center, it is best if you place the pond at ground level or a little above it.

Fish Types

Make sure that the fish you put inside are colorful and lively to attract attention. Watching the fishes swim around everyday can also serve to be therapeutic. But if you want to maintain a small pond, do not place large fishes such as the Japanese Koi. They may not live long in this kind of environment and they are also extremely expensive. Goldfish are compatible with the size of your pond, however, their longevity might not be a guaranteed in an outdoor pond.

Maintenance

Think how much you really want an outdoor pond and how you can maintain and build it depending on your preferences. You might find that maintaining an indoor aquarium is difficult enough, how much more an outdoor pond.

Consider the climate of your place. Water ponds and fish ponds are most applicable in tropical weather because of the advantage of the sun all year round. Some aquatic plants need to be exposed to the sun to grow. The plants and fishes may die if you let them stay in the pond during winter time. it is best to transfer them to an indoor tank if the weather is not applicable.

A fish pond in your own backyard only tells an individual how much energy, time, and money you are willing to devote to the beautification of your backyard. It does not matter how large or how small it is, it just goes to show that you appreciate beautiful things. You will not only impress a lot of people but yourself as well. A back yard fish pond brings a luxurious and relaxing feeling to the place.

In order to make your fish pond more appealing, decorate its surroundings. Landscaping the place will attract frogs and birds which can add to the overall natural feeling. If you cannot afford landscaping projects, hanging plants and flowering bushes will do. This will produce a great ambiance to your visitors and guests.

Having a fish pond is not a go-get-it-and-have-it project. You have to maintain and preserve its beauty time and again. Make sure to add water to it periodically. It is also important that you get rid of fallen leaves as this will cause decay and unpleasant
appearance.

Lastly, consult your local pond professionals before building a pond yourself. Do not hesitate to ask questions as this will benefit the inhabitants of the pond.