Tag Archives: Gardening

Gardening Advice

The Benefits of Compact Gardening

Leave a comment

Compact gardening does not mean second rate gardening, in fact, creative gardeners can have amazing compact gardens, even container gardens for those with no land to cultivate. Compact gardening is especially proper in big cities. So if you live in a big city or urban area, don’t worry, you can still have a nice beautiful garden.

Living in a city does not mean you have to give up having a great garden, including a flower garden, vegetable garden, herb garden or any combination of them. People who live in large cities have learned to enjoy compact gardening and container gardening.

Maximizing the space you have available is the key to success for this type of gardening. Knowing how large things grow, how big their root structure is and things of that nature will help you plan your garden.

Compact gardening requires advance planning. Knowing as much as you can about what you plan to grow, how fast it grows, how it grows, what kind of light it needs, etc., will help you choose the right things to plant in your garden. The last thing you want to do is go into it without planning and have to restart your whole project!

Many people have maximized space by using vine gardening, water gardens, container gardens and herb gardening in order to keep their green thumb in use while having only a limited space available to garden in.

The only limits compact gardening has are the limitations of your imagination. With the right level of creativity and advanced planning you can have an incredible compact garden no matter where you live.

Many stores carry items specifically for compact gardening in order to help you maximize your available space. The use of the right equipment will go a long way towards helping you maximize your garden. Smaller equipment makes your work more efficient when you have a limited space to work in.

There are many resources, books and discussion groups about compact gardening, water gardens, vine gardening, container gardening and related subjects that are all geared towards the person looking to have a great, yet compact garden.

Rather than lamenting over the lack of space, start thinking about all the great things you can do in the space that you do have and you will be well on your way to having a great compact garden. So stop wasting your time worrying about it and go out there and start it!

Garden Plants

Foundation Planting Rules

Leave a comment

Probably no feature on the average American home grounds is more abused by being over-planted than the so called “foundation planting.” There is one reason, and only one, for such a planting: to soften the architectural features of the building by using plant material at strategic locations and thus help blend the house into its natural surroundings.

Basic Rule

There is one fundamental guiding rule for every foundation planting, whether for a small cottage, a large pretentious home, or a huge industrial building. That rule is:

“Plant material shall be placed at those points where the strong vertical architectural lines meet the ground. Of course this broad statement is subject to minor qualifications under certain conditions. Put in still simpler language, it says, “Use plants at the corners of the building and at either side of doorways.”

Causes of Over-Planting

The owner of a home or of a large industrial building, or the authorities in charge of civic buildings and their grounds, are naturally tempted to seek an immediate effect when planning the landscape planting around the foundation of the building they control. That is probably the main reason for extensive over-planting.

Another reason is the fact that in millions of homes of all kinds, in every section of our country, the foundation planting problem has been handled in much the same manner. So it is only natural that a new homeowner will look around, see what so many others have done, and reason that that is the correct and only way to handle the foundation planting. Actually, only one house in a hundred, or in certain areas one in a thousand, has its foundation planting handled correctly!

The Long View

As it may help you to consider this problem first from the psychological angle, try to convince yourself that anything really good is worth waiting for. Have a stout heart if, after putting in your foundation planting in accordance with the suggestions offered in this book, you find your neighbors looking askance at you as if they thought you just a little off balance because you have planted specimens no more than 12 inches high, and have spaced them 6 or 7 feet apart. Of course that looks scanty; and it is easy to see how the uninitiated might consider it ridiculous. But if the sketches succeed in showing you what your planting will eventually look like, then you can face your critics with a smile of contentment, safe in your knowledge that, in four to six years, the foundation planting around your home will very likely be the finest in the neighborhood. You may even point out to them how much money you have saved by planting the foundation according to good landscape principles.

Location of Vertical Lines

Referring again to the placing of plants where the strong vertical lines of the architecture meet the ground, we find that both sides of any door fit this description, thus giving us two points where plants should be used. Other strong vertical lines are at inside or outside corners of buildings. Even a small break in the wall of a building can be considered a corner, and these locations should also be treated as points that call for planting. It is not vitally essential but it will look better in the long run.