Designing your garden should be an art form; one that stirs your soul and feeds your imagination. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a garden that not only allows you to be creative in design, but to make use of natural surrounding as well. The idea of designing your garden around your natural habitat is nothing new or profound. It takes advantage of the local species and natural beauty of the landscape. Mother nature provides flora that is best suited for your climate and soil composition, ensuring healthy and strong plants and foliage.

The Four Pillars of Habitat

Always keep in mind the four pillars of habitat when designing any garden. The four pillars are food, water, shelter and cover.

These four pillars nourish the environment and give back to the earth.

Food:

The plant life in your garden can be a natural food for the inhabitants of the environment. Some good examples of environmental food sources are trees and berry bushes.

Another way of feeding the environment is to choose a particular wild animal that lives in your area and design your garden around the feeding needs of that animal. What plants will feed that creature. If you have wild turkeys in your area, you could plant acorns, beeches, crabapples and hawthorns. A favorite to most gardeners is the monarch butterfly. To attract these to your garden you could plant Asters, Bee Balm, Coreopsis, Coneflower, Lupine, Black-eyed Susan, and yarrow, and also butterfly weed.

You want to plant a range of both flowering and berrying plants in your garden to keep the food going all year. Summer plants are ones like elderberry and shrub dogwood. Fall is a great time for plants like winterberry and chokeberry for attracting birds.

Don’t forget to plant different grasses for another food source for different species. Grasses like Switchgrass, Bluestem and Indian Grass are great for borders.

Water:

Water is essential to provide in any garden where you desire to feed nature’s animals. A garden pond is useful and beautiful. A birdbath made from natural materials or designed for your natural habitat would be wonderful for the birds in your area. Butterflies will enjoy a plate of damp sand.

Shelter:

Wildlife needs to have shelter from the elements. Those who winter down with us during those long cold months especially need to have shelter for survival.

Trees can be excellent shelter as well as food. Pines and cedars are two prime examples of trees that are used for both food and shelter for birds and insects.

If you plant Hollies, Pussywillows, Serviceberry and Viburnum together you will make an excellent nesting sanctuary for birds.

Cover:

This is an important provision to include in your natural garden design because it provides not only shelter from the elements, but protection from predators as well. Most wildlife is dependant on cover to survive on a day-to-day basis.

Cover can consist of thorny plants such as Hawthorns and Wild roses, which are also very good food sources as well. Rabbits and other small animals will benefit from a brush pile (logs at the bottom and twiggy stuff at the top). Another good cover is a pile of rocks. These will provide shelter, cover and homes for critters such as chipmunks.

When you design your natural garden with the four pillars in mind, you will not only have a environmentally friendly garden, you will have one of beauty too.

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If someone you care about loves to garden, then you’re in luck! Buying them gifts is quite easy to do, because there are so many things to choose from. It does help of course, to know a little bit about the gardening preferences of your loved one before buying them gardening gifts though. If for instance, they refuse to grow anything but miniature roses, it wouldn’t do to try and buy them a tulip as a gift. In general though, most gardeners are not particular about what they get, as long as it’s related to gardening in some way. So here are some excellent gift ideas…

1. Live Plants. This is a gardeners all time favorite gift, and it’s easy to buy because there are literally thousands of different types of plants to choose from. Most gardeners in fact, prefer receiving potted plants as a gift over bouquets of flowers, because the gift will keep on giving for years to come.

When buying plants as a gift, if you don’t live in the same area as the person you’re buying for then you’ll need to ask the sales person at the nursery whether or not the plant you’re buying will grow in your gift recipients area. Not all plants will grow just anywhere, and you wouldn’t want to send a gift that will quickly die due to being in the wrong climate.

2. Live Trees and Bushes. This is a gift that’s not often thought of. When people buy live plants as gifts, they often buy annuals, perennials, or house plants. Small things that look pretty and might create flower blooms at some point. A tree or bush however, can also bloom beautifully, and these are almost always welcome additions to any garden. Some gardeners will not think to buy these themselves though, because they’re more expensive than small starter plants are.

3. Yard Decorations. Gardener’s love to decorate their yards and gardens with various accents and accessories, and this is another type of thing that provides you with thousands of options to choose from. You can buy simple wind chimes to be hung on the porch or from a tree for instance, or you can buy bird houses, bird baths, garden fountains, statues, or gazing balls and artifical wildlife too.

4. Garden Furniture. Another area which is often lacking, particularly for new gardeners, is the existance of quality garden furniture. Garden furniture can be quite expensive depending on the type you buy, so most new gardeners are unable to afford it - or unwilling to indulge themselves in the expense. Try buying a nice garden bench, porch swing, or patio table set for a gift they’ll treasure the rest of their lives.

5. Misc Tools. Most gardeners have basic gardening tools from the start, but there’s almost always a need for more. You can buy them extra sets of the basics such as pruners and garden gloves for instance, or try giving them something they don’t yet have such as a nice watering can or a water hose reel.

6. Gift Baskets. Making a unique garden gift basket is an inexpensive way to give the gardener you love many different things, and it’s particularly useful if you’re not quite sure what to give them. Pick out a nice wicker basket or a beautiful planter, then fill it with things like seed packets, compost, soil, fertilizer, pruners, gloves, hat, and gardening books.

Here’s a few more ideas for Gardening Gifts that you might want to take a look at:

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Would you like to receive monthly reports which will help you with all aspects of Gardening and Landscaping? Do you find it challenging and frustrating to find the information you need.

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Regular Readers will have noticed that we have had a bit of a “makeover” which I hope you like! It looks a bit neater to me and I hope that you feel the same. Hopefully it will also make it easier for you to find the particular post that you are looking for.

It brings another of our Gardening and Landscaping sites under the mrgreenfingers.com banner! In addition it enables me to to feature particular ebooks, in the right hand navigation bar, that I think you will find useful.

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I have some exciting news for you about MrGreenFingers.com! After discussions with various folk we have decided that new subscribers get a month’s membership completely without charge!

In addition you can lock your membership in after that trial month for just $4.95 per month for life!

Have a look at what you are getting at Gardening Ideas | Landscaping Ideas and grab your no charge month’s membership right now!

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Who Else Wants To Be Able To Access Really Helpful Information And Advice On All Aspects Of Gardening In One Easy To Access Place? What If I Also Let You Know That You Can Get It For Free For The First Month? Read On To Discover More……..

I am delighted to announce that after a number of weeks in the planning MrGreenFingers.com has now launched! As a reader of my Blog I am pleased to say that you have access to A Month’s Free Trial! What’s even better is that you can lock in your membership at the lowest monthly fee we will ever offer!

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Are you looking for a way to save some money and help the environment as well? Compost is an accepted way and can be used as a great natural fertilizer for your soil. People have been making their own compost for years, but recently it proves that the landfills are dwindling. Knowing that making your own compost helps the environment, city officials are starting to charge for removal of the waste. To get rid of the waste, you can go to a composting site or do this in your own yard. This will show you the easy way of doing it yourself. Think of the basics – leaves, cut grass, and vegetable leftovers can help start your own compost.

Many things can go into this new compost. It is very simple to do. You can just keep adding items such as the vegetables or leaves with a bit of soil and let it set until it is done.

In order to keep your compost pile under control, you could either purchase a compost bin or you can make your own. If you decide to purchase a compost bin, the components of the bin sometimes make the process of decomposing faster. But you can also make your own, you can use a variety of objects such as wire mesh, concrete blocks, or wooden crates. Be sure to make this receptacle no larger than three to five feet across and five feet high.

The way that the compost starts to work is by adding the leaves, cut grass, leftover vegetables, or even weeds to the soil. The soil needs to remain moist for the bits and pieces to decompose. They do take awhile to decompose so do not expect this to happen over night.

If you can construct your compost bin to heat up the material to more than 140 degrees, you could have good compost within a few weeks. Basically you need to kill any bacteria that might remain in the soil, so it does harm your garden.

The best way is to create layers for your compost. Add leftover vegetables first, and then manure, and a thin layer of soil; repeat this process until you are near the top of your bin. This helps in the breakdown process.

Any pieces that are smaller will decompose faster. If you take the time to make all pieces small then your compost will mature better and more rapidly. You will get more use out of your compost and sooner than expected.

It is best to keep your compost mixed well. The reason behind this is because once the bacteria breaks down the pile, the oxygen diminishes and needs to be replenished. This is normally two weeks after starting the pile. The oxygen is the key to the breaking down process.

Depending on how you set up your compost bin, you can turn the compost within itself or shovel the material into another bin. If you make a three-sided bin, this helps with the turning of the soil.

Store bought compost bins will sometimes have a drum to turn the compost with ease.

After about 3 or 4 weeks, you can mix the compost with your garden soil. Just keep out the larger pieces for more decomposing.

There are many ways to help with your compost pile. Keep this these ideas in mind:

Red earthworms help to break down your kitchen waste

Use your blender to chop up your leftover vegetables

You can even just place your kitchen wastes in your garden beds under the soil.

Some of the more common kitchen wastes are the following – coffee grounds, eggshells and vegetables. Some of the uncommon wastes are hair, which will decompose, as well as feathers, ashes from your wood stove or fireplace and ground stone. Some things to consider do not place meat or bones inside, as it will attract vermin, which of course is never good. Plastic or anything metal, sawdust and pet manure should also be avoided.

To avoid large pieces making it into your garden soil, you can use a screen to separate the good compost from the not finished yet. Doing your own composting is the easiest way to save money and help the environment at the same time. Your garden soil also benefits from it.

Have you taken advantage of your Free Trial Membership of our Gardening Ideas Site yet?

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Who Else Wants To Be Able To Access Really Helpful Information And Advice On All Aspects Of Gardening In One Easy To Access Place? What If I Also Let You Know That You Can Get It For Free For The First Month? Read On To Discover More……..

I am delighted to announce that after a number of weeks in the planning MrGreenFingers.com has now launched! As a reader of my Blog I am pleased to say that you have access to A Month’s Free Trial! What’s even better is that you can lock in your membership at the lowest monthly fee we will ever offer!

Take a look at Gardening Membership Site and grab your month’s Trial Membership right now!

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