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Gardening Advice

Garden Designs for the Different Types of Gardens

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No matter if they are urban or rural, all gardens benefit from preplanning and design. This doesn’t mean just knowing where you want your garden, but the overall design of the garden. Today, gardening can include everything from vegetables to flowers to lawn care. Carefully planning what you want, and where you want it, beforehand will help you get the most from your garden.


Planning Your Garden


To begin, measure and draw a plan of your yard and/or garden as it is now. Your plan should include the placement of your house, driveways and walkways, property boundaries, trees and shrubs, and utility services. Using graph paper, draw everything as close to scale as possible.


What Is Your Garden’s Purpose?


Make a list of everything you want to have in your garden area that you consider essential. This could include a vegetable plot, fruit trees, or flower borders. Once you have your basic essentials listed, move on to your “wish list.” Your wish list would include items such as a water feature or a potting shed. Put the items in your list in the order of their importance. Now, place a piece of tracing paper over your original garden plan drawing and draw in your essential and wish list items. Divide your garden plan into zones such as public area, surface area, and private areas.


How Much Space Will You Need?


Everything that you want in your garden plan may not fit in that area that you have available. You may have to make decision about which features are the most important to you, or how to incorporate them differently (like in containers). Think carefully about how much time you will have to devote to your garden’s maintenance and care. Eliminate those things that you know you will not have time for.


What Kind of Garden Do You Want?


There are many different types of gardens that you could have. Besides having vegetables and fruits growing in a certain area, you may also want one of the following types of gardens.


Kitchen Garden. If you don’t have the space or a large vegetable garden, you may want to plant a kitchen garden. This type of garden is usually planted close to the house where you can harvest the plants easily. However, you need to make sure that it is not so close to the house that it does not get adequate sunlight. Plants in a kitchen garden are usually those that are easy to plant, maintain and harvest.


You may want to have an ornamental garden. An ornamental garden and either be formal or informal and is characterized by having plants or shrubs rather than flowers. Some people prefer to use ornamental gardens for their private outdoor rooms.


If you live in a rural area, a Wildlife Garden may be an appropriate choice for you. A wildlife garden will usually include a water feature, tall grasses, and lots of flowers and fruits. This is the type of garden that small critters, butterflies and birds will be drawn to.


Your Final Plan


Your final gardening plan should include those items that you consider essential to your garden and those on your wish list that will fit in your gardening area. By now, you should have all of these features drawn in on your graph paper. Take a good look at your plan to make sure that all of your flowers, vegetables, lawn, and other features are placed in areas that are most appropriate: where they can get the best shade and sun and are aesthetically pleasing.


Now, following your plan, start putting your garden together. It doesn’t all have to be done in the same day. In fact, it’s best to take it slowly and create one area at a time. This way, if you find that some features would really fit another place better, changes can be made before planting.

For more information on Garden Design visit GuideForGardeners.com, a website that provides tips and information on all types of gardening.

Landscaping

Enliven Your Creativity With Your Garden Designs

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Your garden can be a manifestation of your own creativity. It is no longer a place where you plant fruits and vegetables. If you would like to add a little more life and enhance the look of your garden opt for interesting garden designs.


Before you go ahead with some garden designs, you may like to keep some guidelines in mind to for better synchrony of your surroundings:


The Golden Rule


The key to innovative garden designs is a simple rule. THINK BEFORE YOU PLANT. Plan your garden in sync with the look of your house to make a cohesive unit that is in harmony with each other.


Discover The Purpose


Prior to finalizing your garden designs, you may like to consider how the garden would be used. Would you like to enhance the view of the house or would you like to entertain guests? Would little children be comfortable playing in your garden or would senior citizens love taking a walk there? Would your garden occupy private space or would it be in public view? It would really help if you finalized the main purpose of your garden, and then proceeded to design it.


Landscape Matters


Opt for garden designs that compliment the landscape and the house. It is important to remember that the house is the most important part of the landscape and the garden needs to be designed in harmony with the house and the surroundings. Then the different elements of the house and the garden can connect better to provide an interesting style to the house and the landscape.


Choose Your Garden


You have a choice of formal, a semiformal or natural garden designs. A formal garden has the plants and shrubs arranged symmetrically around two axis, which provide a cross with the pool or a gazebo at the center. These gardens are usually adorned with evergreens, hedges or walls and have a hard surface terrace. A semi-formal garden also works on the same axial plan as the formal one; however the garden designs are a little less rigid. In many instances, the hard surface terrace is replaced by grass or evergreen shrubs. Besides, you may also see flowers, vegetables or herbs spilling out of the beds.


Natural garden designs follow the intrinsic landscape. They usually meander around the surroundings and have a casual or softer look. The architectural style of the house, the budget and the personal preference of the owner may eventually decide upon the design of the garden.


Create A Theme


Most garden designs are usually creations of the owners or the gardeners mind, and you have a range of themes to choose from. Let your creativity decide the theme; just make sure that it compliments the overall landscape and the style of the house and garden.


Play With Colors


Colors play a very important role in garden designs. With practice and experimentation you will be able to understand the essence of combining colors. However, you may begin by referring to the color wheel, where colors are arranged according to their relationships with each other. Most color wheels contain 12 colors only, but you may be able to color coordinate the plants and flowers better a violet-red to red to orange-red, in the same order as they appear in the color wheel. Move Around.


Garden designs should be able to accommodate free movement. Designing walkways, pathways or driveways are very important aspects. To make the view of the garden interesting, you can expose vistas that would make a pleasant view. This may encourage visitors to get off the path or driveway and take a closer look at the garden.


Drainage


Drainage is another important factor in garden designs. A sound drainage system will ensure hygiene and maintain overall garden health. On the other hand an unsound drainage system will destroy your garden.


If you are not happy with your existing garden design, follow these guidelines and spice up your view! Add your imagination and creativity to these simple guidelines and create garden designs that will make you proud.

Get all of the latest in garden design know how from the one and only true gardening resource at http://www.gardendesignadvice.com/ Be sure to check out our garden design pages on our web site.