Home And Garden

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. boston computer help . 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. appliance repair in claremont . 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.

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The loveliness of flowering plants needs little embellishment by description. Certainly every gardener seeks the beauty and color that can be brought to his grounds by a variety of flowers. The proper arrangement of flower beds in your garden and attentive care to them can insure you a continuing bloom of lovely flowers year after year. Consideration of the soil requirements for flowers and the proper use of annuals, biennials, and perennials are all discussed below.

Soil Requirements

Preparing the soil for flower beds or borders requires greater care than planting a lawn. For one thing, digging must be deeper. It is not too much to dig the bed 2 feet deep, although 1 1/2 feet is suitable. winrar free download for xp . It is, of course, possible to grow flowers in a shallower bed than this, but the deeper you dig, the better your production will be.

Good loam should be used for the topsoil, e.g., well-rotted manure, humus, peat moss, well-sifted leaf mold or heavy sand. Wood ashes are fine for spring, and lime may be used for loosening the soil. You might think about the character of your soil and consider the particular fertilizer which contains the elements your soil needs most. Should you use manure, be careful not to let it touch the roots of plants.

Annuals

An annual, from the point of view of the amateur gardener, is any plant which must be replaced each year and which flowers only once in its life. longboard complete . Annuals generally are grown from seed. The chief advantage of annuals over perennials is their low cost. Thousands of plants can be grown from a single packet of seeds.

Annuals are also very decorative, and provide the best source of flowers for cutting. Their season of bloom is relatively long, as well. Their chief disadvantage is the late date at which they bloom. If annuals are used alone in a bed or border, a good part of the season will pass with little to show in the way of color.

Biennials

Biennials are generally very beautiful plants, with most attractive flowers. They are somewhat more trouble for the gardener, since they keep growing during their first year and do not bloom until the second. Their great advantage is that their seeding stage produces new plants which will bloom again two years later, making it unnecessary to plant additional seeds.

The biennials are usually planted in early summer and transplanted to good soil when they are large enough to handle. It is a good idea to pot them at this time, particularly in areas where plants cannot be left outdoors all winter. In some cases, they can be transplanted to a coldframe, and then placed in the flower bed the following spring.

Perennials

Perennials are the basic flowers of any garden. Each year they die and renew themselves for the next growing season. They are long-lived and last for many seasons.

Perennials are also, historically, among our oldest plants. They have been cultivated for centuries and often, as a result of breeding and crossbreeding, bear no resemblance to their wild forebears. In some of the perennials, the blossoms have become so specialized through centuries of cultivation that they no longer grow seeds.

Other perennials are continually being developed by amateur botanists and gardeners. As a result of this cultivation and inbreeding, perennials as a rule are not as hardy as other varieties. Another disadvantage is the tendency of certain perennials to die down after flowering, thereby leaving gaps in the garden.

There are a number of ways to solve the problems of short-flowering periods and the resultant unsightly spaces. One way is to intersperse perennials with annuals and other bulbs and flowering plants whose bloom occurs either later or earlier than that of the perennials.

Some perennials are easy to transplant: chrysanthemums, for example, can be moved from one place to another with no noticeable effect on their vigor. This is another way to keep color and bloom throughout the growing season.

With the above tips, you can have a truly beautiful garden all year round. Happy gardening!

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Walking with my family close to nature during late Sunday times has been a practice that I definitely enjoyed while I was a kid. Especially, if these long walks took place during spring time, I became extremely excited since I was able to admire all those wild flowers that attracted my attention and collect as many as I wanted for my bedroom’s vase. As during the past few years I’ve read about, and have seen more interest in wildflowers, I figured it was about time to jump in and add my two cents.

Planting wild flowers in your backyard is not as an easy process as you might imagine. Just because the flowers you select to plant belong to the “wild” type that does not mean that they are able to survive without any attention or be sprayed with harmful pesticides.

First of all, the one interested in exploring the wild flowers business has to understand what kind of neighborhood wildflowers would be appropriate for the specific situation he or she lives in. It is true that wild flowers tend to prefer wide open spaces with at least 8 hours of sunshine each day. It is also true, they are sun worshipers. They also like the soil to be rich in nutrients and well drained. What wild flowers do not like is the hard packed soil and also being watered for long periods of time. If you garden tends to be frequently wet, wildflowers might not be the best choice for your outdoor surroundings.

But, wildflowers can be used for weed control and with a great deal of success. It is better though if you have to give wildflowers a start or the weeds will keep the area free from your original goal of a beautiful wildflower garden. Since both love the sun, weeds and wildflowers try both to reach the surface of the ground so as to gain as much sunlight as possible. Neither will grow well without adequate sunlight. Using this information to your advantage and you can end up with a beautiful bed of wildflowers that requires little maintenance.

The Wild Flower Preservation Society, whose headquarters are in Washington, D.C., makes the following recommendation to wild flower fans, “Do not pick or dig up wild flowers in quantity unless they are abundant or weedy. Wild flowers that are not abundant should be picked or dug up very sparingly.” If the years I used to pick up wild flowers have long passed, perhaps it is time to grow some of my own in my back yard and share them with the people I care about. If you belong to the same group, there is always a good possibility we will meet in one of those flower markets, someday down the road.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles on many topics including Gardening, Home Improvement, and Home