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Landscaping

Small Garden Design

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The small garden design begins and ends with thoughtful, precise planning. However, small does not mean limited. A small garden design can still deliver a huge “wow” factor.

Small Garden Design: The Problems

A small garden design comes with big challenges. Perhaps your property abuts the two-story blank wall of a neighbor’s townhouse. Maybe the space is all straight lines and right angles. Or you’ve remodeled your home, changed the elevation, added a new room and reduced the size of your backyard, all of which affect the relationship to the existing landscape.

Turning Liabilities into Assets

With small garden design, as with all landscape design, the goal is to create spaces in which the home and architectural elements have a relationship with the yard and surrounding area. First, consider the big picture-your assets and liabilities. Begin by looking at the large, possibly immoveable factors, such as trees, a long fence-line or pool equipment, and decide if they are liabilities or assets. In this way, you test the viability and capacity of the site, a determination that will help clarify your landscape design options. Landscape designers or landscape architects can bring expertise and experience to this process.

Small Garden Design: Features to Consider

• Hardscapes. Decks, patios, pergolas, arbors and gates can be used to help define a small space, break it up or create interest. These choices, in effect, create other rooms. Your material selection adds further texture, thus making the space livelier.

• Water features such as swimming pools or outdoor water fountains. Swimming pools can be custom-made to fit into a small garden design. Also outdoor water fountains can be used to good effect in small gardens. Water features create movement and pleasant sounds, both elements that heighten your enjoyment of a landscape.

• Landscape lighting. Landscape lighting, in particular, can bring an element of drama to a small space. It is good to keep in mind that your landscape is viewed at night for about 30 percent of the time. Since so many people work and don’t come home until after dark, landscape lighting means homeowners can still enjoy their outdoor property, whenever they get home. It turns the landscape into a 24-hour event. Landscape lighting is also very practical as it provides security and nighttime lighting for any tricky steps.

• Infrastructure, like irrigation systems and drainage systems. Irrigation and drainage systems are the work-horses of Houston gardens. Sprinkler systems deliver water to plants during our long, intense summer months and drainage systems take away excess water when we get our infamous torrential rains. They save money, time and worry.

The Heart of Small Garden Design

Jeff Halper, landscape design specialist with Exterior Worlds, says, “The overall objective of any great landscape design, including small garden designs, is to create a space that breathes with the home and has a relationship to its surroundings. It should reflect the client’s visual desires and functionally work together in every aspect.”

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Landscaping

Your Vegetable Garden Design Depends on Elbow Grease and Soil

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Having a vegetable garden is a great asset to your live, with the right vegetable garden design and the right soil you can grow your own healthy and delicious vegetables for your self and your family. But how do you determine what kind of soil you have and do you need to base your vegetable garden design to these findings?

A vegetable garden takes a lot of effort and you need to make sure what kind of soil you have before you start planning and creating your first vegetable garden design.

You Need The Right Soil for a Successful Vegetable Garden Design

To grow vegetables you need good soil and you can define soil in roughly three types. The first and best type of soil to grow vegetables in is loam. This type is rich of humus, dark, crumbly and soft. It holds water but it also allows for good drainage. This type is an organic matter build up from all kind of living plants, fungus and other living things that have died, decomposed and have returned to the ground. It is also very easy to dig. In this type of soil your veggies will grow like crazy. So start making that vegetable garden design, you don’t need to do anything to enhance this type of soil.

The next type of garden dirt is clay, this is not as rich as loam and needs a bit of work. Clay consists of very tiny particles and these stick together which causes real poor drainage. You can enhance the clay by mixing it with sand, peat moss, bone meal and other soil nutrients. Mixed together makes the clay suitable for vegetable garden design.

The last soil type is sand, this is the opposite of clay because the structure is loose and much larger partials. This means the dirt is dry and poor, but with some work and adding some soil nutrients, you can make it definitely good enough to start with your vegetable garden design.

It is likely that your garden is a combination of the these three basic types. There are kits you can buy that test the dirt and it tells you what to add to enhance the soil. You can also ask a nurseryman for some exact advice before you start with your vegetable garden design.

Prepare the land for your vegetable garden design

Whatever soil you have you will only grow good vegetables and fruits if it is properly prepared. The best way to do this is in the autumn or early winter. You need to make sure that the soil is thoroughly spaded and turned to about two spades deep. You can work some (organic) fertilizer in to the ground and during winter the moisture can properly sink in. This will improve the condition of the soil tremendously.

During winter you can start drawing your vegetable garden design and add in all the vegetables and fruits you want to grow. You can dig in to books instead of the ground and get some real knowledge about the growing methods and the soil type the many different vegetables need to be very productive.
When you add this knowledge to your vegetable garden design you will have a great time when harvest time comes.

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