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Landscaping is a great way to enhance the setting of your home to give it increased curb appeal. However, doing your own landscaping can be a daunting task for anyone who doesn’t have knowledge on the fundamentals of landscaping. Though this might be true to some extent, following certain guidelines should significantly help you accomplish this relatively complex project with more confidence.

After all, landscaping isn’t exactly rocket science. So don’t think you can’t work your way through, even if you aren’t a certified green thumb.

One of the most important factors to consider in any landscaping project is to create a design that will have appeal for the entire year. This means the beauty you’re trying to achieve with your landscaping project shouldn’t focus entirely on a vibrant profusion of colors during the summer and spring, but should also take into consideration generating attraction even during autumn and winter.

Thus, you’ll need to know which plants and trees should be chosen to ensure you won’t just have the alluring spring and summer blossoms to look forward to, but to also enjoy the autumn foliage as well as a wonderful design structure for winter.

When putting in a landscape:

1. Determine the particular plants that have the ability to put on the best show.

2. Use this knowledge to come up with a staggered planting plan. This basically gives you an idea which plants should be grouped together since you naturally wouldn’t want to have a chaotic riot of colors come spring.

High-performer plants should be carefully spaced to avoid an uncoordinated appearence that could end up having a chaotic display of flowers that ultimately results in a haphazard effect.

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Regardless of the climate where you live, there are certain steps you should take to prepare your rose bushes for winter.

For those who live in warmer climate zones, preparation will be minimal. For those who live in the colder climate zones, more preparation will be needed.

In the warmest southern zone, freezing isnt a major concern. You’ll want to check your plants for disease, taking care to treat for any problems that may have arisen. You may want to give a light fertilization in November to ensure blooms in time for the holidays in December.

After the blooms in December you’ll want to prune your bushes in preparation for next spring.

For those who live in temperate southern and coastal zones, the freezes that occur are generally short-lived, so major preparation isn’t necessary.

You’ll want to stop fertilizing and pruning or “dead-heading” in fall. To prepare for freezes, apply mulch after the second hard frost. This mulch should be mounded around the base of your plant to provide ample protection.

If you live in the colder central zones, your winter preparation is a bit more extensive. If your roses are of a hardiness that’s adapted to your climate zone you can simply follow the steps set out for the warmer climates.

However, if you have varieties that aren’t well adapted to colder climates you have three options: transplanting to containers for storage indoors, burying your plants or building a protective covering.

For anyone who lives in the northernmost climate regions your best options are burying or transplanting your rose bushes as mentioned. The winter temperatures are far too cold to rely on a protective covering for your plants, as the cold exposure may still be too much for them to survive.

Generally, transplanting is the preferred method of winterization for the most extreme winter climates.

Although winter preparation can be a bit daunting, and at times even overwhelming, by preparing in advance for winter you’ll ensure you have beautiful, healthy rose bushes next spring.

Make a winter preparation plan during the summer, doing your research and gathering supplies ahead of time. This will make carrying out your winter preparations easier and less stressful.

For more in-depth advice on caring for your Roses, go to: Rose Gardening

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Bonsai has been around for centuries. It’s been raised, trimmed and cared for by many Chinese and Japanese, who do bonsai planting and growing as an form of art and hobby. Bonsai hobbyists are growing rapidly with many more people all over the world, not just Japan and China, now practicing the art of tray planting.

With this growth, it’s not surprising that bonsai of all sizes, styles, and shapes can be found in the rooms and gardens of hundreds of households in the United States and other countries in North America and Europe.

Learning the art of tray planting or bonsai is a long process that requires you to exert and spend much time, effort, and patience. In addition, you’ll need to use your imagination and creativity to make your bonsai tree in a true sense. This is why artists and hobbyists often label bonsai as an imagination tree.

What is Bonsai?

What is bonsai? That’s what most people ask when they hear the term bonsai. For beginners, the main characteristic you should understand is that bonsai is a miniature plant grown in containers, but cared and respected as an art form. What makes it a form of art lies in the fact that unlike other plants, bonsai are grown and formed to look like a naturally and century-old tree — but in its smallest form.

Bonsai, although a unique horticultural art form, can be developed either from cuttings, or through seeds. There are, however, some growers who develop bonsai from existing young trees or from those diminutive trees taken from the woods and forests.

For these plants to be called a bonsai, they need to be planted and transferred into a pot or container. It’s worth noting that the transfer of the plants or seeds into a pot is what holds the very core of bonsai planting. It’s patterned from the term “bon” meaning pot or tray, and “sai” which stands for tree or plant.

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Forsythia Shrubs

The end of winter brings in the vibrant colors of spring where flowers bloom in profusion. More often than not, after a long and cold winter season, we’re all looking forward to enjoying the welcome sight of the wonderful hues of spring. The forsythia shrubs are among early bloomers in spring, sporting sunny yellow flowers that become a perfect fixture of the season. One of the charming characteristics of forsythia is that the plant flowers tend to precede its leaves, so you can enjoy a nice burst of color just when you need it most.

Weeping Flowering Trees

Weeping trees are among the most popular choices for a spring landscape, particularly  the snow fountain cherry-weeping tree that blossom best in well drained soil and exposure to full sunlight.

Rhododendrons and Azaleas

Many landscaping artists group these two together. Among the popular choices is the Catawba Rhododendron variety, which is a broadleaf evergreen bush with some leathery foliage, and spring flowers that tend to attract hummingbirds. What’s great about this plant is it’s so easy to transfer, but would require acidic soil and some shady location for maximum growth. Its flowers are available in white, rose, and lavender with bushes than can reach as high as 6-8 feet and spread as wide as 4-6 feet.

Lilac Shrubs

The lavender-blue cluster flowers of this plant are expected to be in full bloom late in  spring. This means, when all other spring plants have had their show, you can expect the lilac bushes to take center stage to show off its own display of blooms. It also has a wonderful fragrance that adds to its captivating sight and is actually hailed to be one of the most wonderful aromas in the world.

Hydroponic gardening is a great way to garden indoors if you do not have arable land suitable for gardening. If you are going to be gardening indoors, you will want to garden efficiently, in order to get more produce from your hydroponic garden.

Hydroponics means that the plant is grown without dirt and with a nutrient solution that provides for all of its needs. As long as you have the right lights and a hydroponic digital ballast you can grow your plants in sand, gravel or rockwool, or you can grow them in water. The advantages to (more…)