Tag Archives: Gardening

The Beauty of Edging Your Flower Garden

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The edging surrounding your garden is practically as important as the flowers themselves. The edging frames your garden, like the frame of a picture. It gives it well defined boundaries to separate your flower garden from the rest of your yard. A good edging enhances the beauty of your flower garden, turning it into a masterpiece.

These is an assortment of edging options to choose from, and it is up to you to pick the one that will best compliment your garden. A low retaining wall, made from brick or rock and mortar, is a popular choice, as it is solid and permanently boarders your garden. These types of wall edgings can be quite expensive; however, and you may decide that you would like to choose something not as permanent to edge your garden. You never know when you will want your garden to expand!

Another option is to simply line up bricks or rocks, using no mortar. Bricks can be lined up, stacked in a short wall, or set up diagonally, leaning against one another. Rocks can also be lined up or stacked to crate an edging for your garden. Rocks should be small enough to be easily moved, while large enough to make a visual impact. Rocks can be found while digging in your garden or for other landscaping projects, or in a friend’s yard or empty lot. Just be sure to ask for permission before taking rocks from someone elses property.

You can also purchase edging materials at a home improvement store or garden center. Have a look around and check out all the options that might look good in your garden. You can choose from plastic edging, which provides a simple border when stuck vertically in the ground, tiny fences, landscaping timbers, and boarders made from artificial rock. The options are almost endless. Just be sure that what ever you decide, that you select a good quality, durable product. You need something that will hold up, so you wont have to replace your edging year after year.

Border plants, such as perennials like alpine phlox, make a beautiful, natural edging. Low growing plants that grow quickly and can be divided and replanted each spring make a nice choice, so that you do not have to purchase new annuals every year. As with selecting any plants for your garden, make sure that you select plants that will work with your climate and the amount of sun your garden receives.

The lush, thick growth of comfrey, make it an excellent choice to border a large garden. It will stop grass from encroaching on your garden with its heavy growth. The flowers are beautiful and will be attractive in your garden, and you can use the leaves as mulch when they fall off. Comfey is only appropriate for large gardens, however, as smaller gardens can quickly become overtaken.

A delicious choice for edging your garden would be to plant strawberries or herbs. You can use the fresh herbs in your meals when cooking – just clip off as much as you need when you visit your garden.

You can select from a variety of plants, rocks, bricks or store bought edging to border your garden. Keep in mind that the edging you select should serve as a frame to accentuate and display your flower garden as though it is a work of art.

Japanese Gardening

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The basics of a Japanese Garden

Most of us have a pre-determined notion of what a Japanese garden looks like. We think of certain details which come to mind, things like the ever popular Japanese maples giving off their fiery glow in the fall. Or expanses of Kurume azaleas or rhododendrons with their fine spring colors. Or perhaps it is the rustling of a slender bamboo in the breeze.

Whatever it is, there is always something soothing about the typical Japanese garden. But is there, in fact, such a thing as a typical Japanese garden?

There are different kinds of Japanese gardens, each having their very own personality, if you will.

Some of the best known gardens in Japan, have almost no plantings at all, but are comprised of carefully tended “seas” of fine gravel surrounding rock groupings. Perhaps there is no better example of this than the world renowned garden at Ryoan-ji.

Ryoan-ji is undoubtedly the finest example of a Zen type garden and receives tens of thousands of visitors every year. In fact, it is so popular, that one side of it is lined with a large seating area to accommodate tour groups. It is considered de rigeur for all school children in the area to visit Ryoan-ji as part of their education.

While such a garden may appear to be very simple in both its’ design and construction, it is accepted that much thought went into this magical place to reach this level of perceived simplicity.

Japanese gardens span the full spectrum of garden types, from the dry garden as at Ryoan-ji, to large pond type gardens with their lazily swimming and brightly colored koi. And everything in between.

One of the favorite tricks of Japanese garden designers in the past has been to use borrowed scenery to enhance their appearance. What this does, is to make the garden appear to blend in with, and take advantage of, the immediate surroundings. It gives the impression of much greater overall size.

Whether or not these surroundings are very close, or consist of distant mountain views, every effort is made to incorporate such views by carefully designing viewing areas to take full advantage of the natural surroundings.

Perhaps one of the most loved is the Japanese tea garden, with its’ own tea house. These gardens are usually quite small, and are sometimes included as a distinct part of a larger garden. The Nitobe Gardens in Vancouver are an example of such a tea garden. The garden itself is fairly large and contains most of the elements you would expect to find in an authentic garden of this type.

Should you find yourself interested in the fascinating subject of how to build your own Japanese style garden, an excellent place to begin is to study those gardens in existence already. Whether or not you have the ability to travel to Japan and visit some of these gardens first hand should not deter you. Fortunately for us, the internet has given us access to the best of the best.

Secondly, and by no means an inferior resource, their exists a wonderful variety of top notch books, almost all of which are available in the English language. Over the years I have been able to accumulate a substantial library by many of the finest authors on the subject.

Japanese Gardening

Posted on by

The basics of a Japanese Garden

Most of us have a pre-determined notion of what a Japanese garden looks like. We think of certain details which come to mind, things like the ever popular Japanese maples giving off their fiery glow in the fall. Or expanses of Kurume azaleas or rhododendrons with their fine spring colors. Or perhaps it is the rustling of a slender bamboo in the breeze.

Whatever it is, there is always something soothing about the typical Japanese garden. But is there, in fact, such a thing as a typical Japanese garden?

There are different kinds of Japanese gardens, each having their very own personality, if you will.

Some of the best known gardens in Japan, have almost no plantings at all, but are comprised of carefully tended “seas” of fine gravel surrounding rock groupings. Perhaps there is no better example of this than the world renowned garden at Ryoan-ji.

Ryoan-ji is undoubtedly the finest example of a Zen type garden and receives tens of thousands of visitors every year. In fact, it is so popular, that one side of it is lined with a large seating area to accommodate tour groups. It is considered de rigeur for all school children in the area to visit Ryoan-ji as part of their education.

While such a garden may appear to be very simple in both its’ design and construction, it is accepted that much thought went into this magical place to reach this level of perceived simplicity.

Japanese gardens span the full spectrum of garden types, from the dry garden as at Ryoan-ji, to large pond type gardens with their lazily swimming and brightly colored koi. And everything in between.

One of the favorite tricks of Japanese garden designers in the past has been to use borrowed scenery to enhance their appearance. What this does, is to make the garden appear to blend in with, and take advantage of, the immediate surroundings. It gives the impression of much greater overall size.

Whether or not these surroundings are very close, or consist of distant mountain views, every effort is made to incorporate such views by carefully designing viewing areas to take full advantage of the natural surroundings.

Perhaps one of the most loved is the Japanese tea garden, with its’ own tea house. These gardens are usually quite small, and are sometimes included as a distinct part of a larger garden. The Nitobe Gardens in Vancouver are an example of such a tea garden. The garden itself is fairly large and contains most of the elements you would expect to find in an authentic garden of this type.

Should you find yourself interested in the fascinating subject of how to build your own Japanese style garden, an excellent place to begin is to study those gardens in existence already. Whether or not you have the ability to travel to Japan and visit some of these gardens first hand should not deter you. Fortunately for us, the internet has given us access to the best of the best.

Secondly, and by no means an inferior resource, their exists a wonderful variety of top notch books, almost all of which are available in the English language. Over the years I have been able to accumulate a substantial library by many of the finest authors on the subject.

Gardening Catalogs – Use Them to Make Your Garden Gorgeous

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When long winters cause gardeners to stay indoors, gardening catalogs can help them to endure the withdrawal symptoms so many gardeners experience when they are stuck inside and away from the garden work that they so enjoy. Fall and winter can be trying time for people who love to garden.

Thanksgiving and Christmas often herald the end of the gardening season. Gardeners are forced to watch powerlessly as the leaves change colors, fall from their trees, and get covered with clean, white snow. It can be quite a happy time when a gardening catalog arrives in the dead of winter. Gardeners are suddenly reminded that spring will come soon enough.

Burpee Gardening Catalog

W. Atlee Burpee originated the now famous Burpee Gardening Catalog towards the end of the 1800’s. The catalog came about when his livestock almanac began to feature vegetable seeds. Mr. Burpee’s passion was to try to constantly improve nursery and livestock stock by means of breeding. Some of the first Burpee gardening catalogs thus featured the Long Orange improved carrot, the Surehead improved cabbage, and recently developed green beans and radishes.

Seed starting equipment, gardening supplies, herbs, bulbs, perennial flowers, annual flowers, and vegetables are all available in current Burpee gardening catalogs. Gifts designed for gardeners, wreaths, and greens are all available from the Burpee catalog during the fall and winter off season.

Smith & Hawken Catalog

Quite distinct from the Burpee Gardening Catalog, the Smith & Hawken Catalog was established in 1979. It features gifts for gardeners, gardening accessories, and high-end garden furniture. This catalog sells bulbs that can be grown indoors during the winter months, indoor orchids, and miniature cypress trees that come in their own planters at a cost of between $29 and $39.

Pruners, tool caddies, gloves and gardening clogs are just a few of the delightful gifts available for avid gardeners from the Smith & Hawken catalog. Firepits and outdoor croquet and bocce ball sets are also available from this catalog. Gadgets for monitoring changes in climate have also become popular items in the Smith & Hawken catalog.