Sunday, April 12, 2009

Creating a garden in your backyard

Justify Full

If you have some space in your backyard, then you can create a nice garden. Creating a garden with require some basic tools like spade, hoe, dustbin, weasel, etc. The spade helps a gardener dig soil in the garden. The hoe will be used for edging. A rake will be used for leveling and weeding. The garbage bins will be used for storing the discarded weeds. Make sure there aren’t any weeds on the grass since they tend to spread into the lawn. The wheelbarrow is priceless when it comes to moving heavy loads, soils, and saves precious time.

Begin with what colors you would like. Color is the most important factor in a garden design and also the first one considered by professional garden designers. Colors are what most of the gardeners are attracted to. Good garden designing involves knowledge of combining colors so that the end product is what we want. Visit some local gardens or your neighbor’s garden and check what colors are used in their gardens. After deciding the garden style and its features, it is time to implement them on your own garden. Most likely, you garden won’t be of proper size and shape, or your dream garden is inappropriate for the space you have. The solution to this problem is to have a style in mind without wanting to create the exact style.

Put newspapers between rows to keep weeds out of your garden. Weight down the papers with grass, hay or manure. The paper will be decomposed after few months. During planting of seeds, make sure you write the date on the seed packets or an index card. Enclose it in a plastic covering and attach it to a stick at the row end. You can plant flowers in pots or in the ground. Choose colorful flower plants so that your garden will look amazing when all the flowers grow.

Choose 2-3 colors and use them in your garden. You can create patches of the same color or mix 2 colors in every patch. You can also outline your garden with plants which have colorful leaves. For watering, install a water garden or a water fountain. Use lighting around the water fountain, to make it more attractive during night.

Using terrariums for miniature gardening

A terrarium allows us to easily grow plants inside our house. It is a transparent container used for keeping or growing plants inside it. The high humidity inside the terrarium creates a high humidity environment similar to a small greenhouse. This is helpful particularly during the winter season when you have heaters running. The terrarium provides almost all the resources required for the plant to grow properly.

The terrarium should be placed out of direct sunlight since exposure to sunlight may cause over heating. Choose a plant which is small and grows slowly so you don’t have to worry about the plants becoming too large too soon for the container. Growing plants in a terrarium is a fun filled process which your kids will enjoy doing. Terrariums have been in use for centuries and are foolproof.

You can find many terrariums for sale in local stores. However, you can make your terrarium at home. You can use an old glass container or aquarium to create a terrarium. You can also use a shallow glass bowl or container.

After you choose/create a terrarium container, there are some other things you will require to create your miniature garden successfully. You will require some small good looking pebbles, charcoal, sphagnum moss and a good quality soil mix. There are special soil mixes available specifically for terrariums. These mixes may be difficult to find and are not really required. Begin with a good indoor potting mix made specifically for container plants. You can also add perlite or vermiculite for drainage. Remember you will get what you pay for. Don’t compromise on the soil mix. Cheap potting soils may cause your plants to die. They stifle the plant’s roots and cause fungus and disease to the plant. Based on the size of your terrarium, you can use household items like forks, chopsticks, tongs, etc as your gardening tools. Make sure all the tools are clean before using by soaking them in very hot water for 2-3 minutes.

See how to create your own terrarium here