Saturday, August 14, 2010

How To Landscape The Front Of Your Home

This article about How to Landscape the front of your home, is written with the "do-it-yourself" in mind, and is intended to show all that you basically need to apply, with simple principles and basic elements for accomplishing the best results possible in making your landscape, outstanding.


After many years of experience in the Nursery and Landscaping field, you get to the point, maybe by intuition, when you are called out to give an estimate, you pretty much could tell how is it going to look when it is finished, and how much is it going to cost, just by looking at the house. It becomes such a routine, but still, each and every house has it's own characteristics, and I would adventure to say, personality. Every project is different, though, and that is why is more interesting.

One reason the character and the personality of a home might be unique in many instances, because of the color and the position of the house on the rough landscape, and many other factors.

Now, that was not always the case. When I'm thinking of my first projects, many years ago, I remember struggling a lot to do my utmost best to create and design the best landscaping plan possible to get the job, and to build my reputation as a landscaper. That was not an easy task, and it was always a challenge. There are several principles and elements in the landscaping design, that you have to keep in mind, and to apply in order to do a good job.

The element of form, the shape of the "line", the size of the landscape relative to the size of the property, and many other principles and elements that you need to keep account of when designing a landscape project.

The purpose of this article is not really to give any definition of the landscaping, or to complicate things in any way, but rather to help the home owners to create their own project, in this case, intended mostly for the front of the house.

Concentrating on the very front of the house, is essential to pay attention to every little detail, since that is the part of your landscape that will decide the character of your real estate, and the first impression for the visitors. Just think of a painting, where the front yard is your canvas, you are the artist, and you must decide the "colors". That's another important element for your landscape project in order to be a success! The colors!

Another important element in designing a landscaping project, is the "lines" in the shaping of the planting surfaces. I believe that for a nice aesthetic design, the lines play a significant role. For myself it always played a very significant role. I also believe that it played a very important part in the success of many of my landscaping projects, the using of curve lines in most of my landscape designs. No matter from what angle you are looking at a curved line design, it will always look beautiful!

I personally, never liked to use too many straight lines when designing the planting space right next to the front of the house. Only if I did not have a choice, like when there was a walkway from the front door and turning to the left or to the right of the house at 90 degrees in a straight line, not too far from the wall of the house. It was always working better when the walkway was straight from the front door towards the street, to the Mail Box. Or if it turned anywhere farther away from the immediate vicinity of the home itself.

Thus, I had plenty room to play with my preferred curve lines in my design.

It always worked and looked much better when I was using curved lines, starting from the side of the house, where usually there is an AC unit, at the left side or the right side of the house. It doesn't really matter. I hope that you can envision the design as we go along in describing the shape of the planting space.

Here we go!

Drawing a curve line in such a way as to hide the AC unit with a few taller shrubs, coming with a fine curved line to the corner of the house, and expanding the line in a loop shape, to give you the chance to plant a little tree to kind of frame the house with some accent planting, on both extreme corners of the house.

Then from that loop line at the corner, I was drawing a curve line allowing room for other shrubs and blooming perennials, bedding plants and some ornamental grasses, as accent planting, going towards the front door to the walkway. Right here, next to the walkway, on both sides of it, I planted another little tree, a topiary or any other tall shrub, for the purpose of framing the landscape, to give it some character and again, accent. The right front side of the house will perfectly mirror the left front side.

Now in between the two corners and the taller trees or topiary plants next to the walkway, you can plant some low maintenance shrubs, about 16 to 24 inches from the wall, and about 2 to 3 feet apart, as foundation planting. These can be Compacta Hollies, Korean Boxwood, Indian Hawthorne, or any other low maintenance shrubs that you like.

Right in front of this row of shrubs that is called the "foundation planting", you can plant in a staggered fashion, so that the back row next to the wall should be visible, some other low growing shrubs, like Yaupons, Helleri, Soft Touch, or any other shrubs that you like. Right in front of the second row of shrubs, as a border, plant some ornamental grass like green or variegated Liriope, Aztec grass, etc. for some nice color variations.

For some nice colors, plant a few bedding plants of your choice, and as they are seasonal, you can always change the colors as you please. This should create a nice unique character to your home.

But wait, I've got ahead of myself, jumping too fast to the planting faze! Assuming that you draw all this on a sheet of paper, you pretty much have the lay out of how your finish project is going to look like. At least you have a pretty good idea.

Now let's mark our project on the ground, and see how is it going to work out. First let's start with the side of the house, where the AC unit is located, be it on the left or right side of the house. Or if the unit is on the back side, then you don't have to worry about it, for now. Only if, and when you will start working on your back yard landscaping.

So, we going to take a flexible water hose, and lay it down in a nice curve line, from the back corner of the house coming towards the front corner, and forming the loop we were talking about. Make it large enough so the loop will accommodate one tree, and three low growing shrubs for a group planting right in front of the tree. I hope you get the picture.

Continue to go with the hose, in a nice curve (again) expanding the line just a little away from the house, to have room to accommodate the shrubs and the rest of the plants described above. Go all the way to the walkway, and end the line a little towards the street, to make room for your next accent tree or topiary.

Look at the lay out of this side of the house, from different angles, and adjust the line until you like what you see. It's not really much to see, yet, but you'll have a pretty good idea. Once you are satisfied with the lay out, mark the line with a landscape spray can, that you can find at the hardware store, and do exactly the same thing on the other side of the house.

Now is the time to measure and see how many plants you going to need. Keep account of the distance you will need between the plants, and then figure out how many can you accommodate, not to make it too crowded, nor too bare. It should be a nice balance, pleasant to the beholder. Remember, this is your work of art, and it should make you very proud!

The hardest part is over! Now let's get our hands dirty, and let the fun begin!

So, the beautiful lay out of our plan is done, let's clean the ground of any rocks and debris and if necessary, let's add some amendments, like cow manure, several bags, some good fertilizer, and spread it on the top, and till it in the dirt. Rake it nicely, and now you can buy the plants, from your preferred Garden Center.

Water the plants until you have time to start planting. The fun part is just about to start!

Lay the plants in their position, and look at the entire picture once again, from different angles. Move the plants as many times as you like, while they are still in pots, until you are fully satisfied as how your landscape is going to look.

Once you have them all in place, leave them right there, and just pull away just one at a time, and dig the hole, and plant your trees and shrubs one by one. Dig the hole large enough so that the roots have room to expand.

Note: under no circumstance should you put any fertilizer in contact with the roots at planting time! This is very important! Sometimes in our eagerness to make the plants grow faster then they should, we put fertilizer to the roots, and that will burn the roots, and the plants will surely die! Best way to fertilize with, is what we call "top dress" with slow release fertilizers. Let mother nature do the job, and we should not force anything on it.

Once you planted all the plants, is time to apply the mulch, about 2 to 3 inches deep, and this should ad a phenomenal beauty and neatness to your landscape project!

Make a nice little flower bed around your mail box, mulch it as well, and plant strategically for even greater accent some nice ornamental trees, in the rest of your front yard.

Once planting is done, water well and make sure that you water slowly so that the water penetrates down to the roots. Just a sprinkle on the top of the soil is not going to be enough. Remember, your new plants just moved in, and they need time to accommodate in their new location. So, please, make them feel right at Home!

If you like this article, and it has helped you in any way, please leave a comment, and help me to improve my service, to you, the readers. Your following me on this blog, is highly appreciated!

http://borlovans-nursery.blogspot.com/

Until next time, Happy Gardening!

Mike Borlovan

Thursday, August 12, 2010

How To Grow Herbs Inside In Containers

How to grow herbs inside in containers, for year round use.


If you like herbs and you want to spice up your cooking and salads, it is possible to have them year round whenever you want to use them. Just reach to your windowsill, and pinch off a few leaves of the herbs you grow, and enjoy the best and freshest flavor you can think of.

There is a pretty vast list of how many herbs you can grow, but you can just choose the ones that you really like and use in your kitchen, whenever you like, when you have company over, and you are sure to impress them, as you will get a lot of compliments on your cooking.

The herbs are grown from seeds, and there are annual, perennial, and biennial herbs. A few examples of annual herbs first, would be some that are most commonly used, but you can pick any you love the most.

Arugula Astro, Arugula Rocket, Basil Caesar, Basil Picolino, Basil Pluto, Basil Sweet Dani, Basil Siam Queen, Cilantro Santo, Dill Bouquet, Dill Fernleaf, Sweet Marjoram, etc.

Perennial herbs: Garlic Chives, Lemon Balm, Oregano, Peppermint, Rosemary, Green Sage, Winter Thyme, etc.

Biennial herbs: Parsley Banquet, Parsley Forest Green, Parsley Plain Italian Dark Green, etc.

These are just a few examples of the many herbs you can choose to grow.

As I mentioned above that the herbs are grown from seeds, here is how to grow them.

Like in any gardening, be it outdoors or indoors, the first and most important faze is the preparation of the soil. This is the base and the place where the seeds are buried, and germinate to spring to life, and the place to live. So some basic conditions are essential and they must be met. And the soil is very important to be of the best quality possible, if we want to succeed, and create the best environment for the the plants to live in.

The soil must be of a good quality, nutritious, rich in minerals, for the plants to develop and grow healthy. Remember, these herbs are edible, not just some ornamental plants. You are going to use them in your food.

For the herb seeds, it is necessary to have a fine peat-moss blend of soil with micro-nutrients for a good start, from your local Garden Center. If you are going to grow them in a windowsill, for the source of sun light, the preferred size of the plastic pots would be 4 to 6 inch wide, round or square.

Once you have the soil, the pots and the seeds, that's all you need to start your indoor herb garden.

Fill the containers with the soil all the way up to the lip of the pot, leaving about half inch from the very top of the pot. Take a pinch of herb seeds, and drop them evenly on the top of the soil. Cover the seeds very thinly with soil, and with a fine mist water the soil slowly, to make sure the water penetrates down in the soil. Set them on the windowsill, and you are done. Water and keep the soil moist. Do not let it dry out completely! In a few days, you will see the little herb plants sprouting out of the soil.

Once the herbs have grown to a certain height, keep watering, but make sure that you water gently, by poring the water in a corner of the pot, so that only the soil gets wet. The herb plants are still tender, so be gentle with them.

If you like spicy hot food, you can grow some hot peppers in a pot. But you need only one seed, and it would be better to start the pepper seeds in a cell pack, like a jumbo 6 pack. Once the seed sprouted and they have some real leaves, you can transplant the pepper plant in a 6 inch size pot or larger.

Another solution for the indoor garden is a 'garden tub', if you prefer to have just one long tub with all the herbs in one confinement. so, once the herbs developed enough, you can move them in the garden tub (in size like the width of the windowsill), one by one.

Fill up the tub with the same fine soil, and take each herb out of the original pot, with the soil intact, and plant it in the tub. Keep your little garden watered, and just keep it moist, not soggy, and do not let the herbs dry out completely.

Now you have a beautiful aromatic, flavorous garden at your finger tips. Enjoy the freshest and most tasteful flavour that you ever have experienced in your salads, and your specialty cooking.

Pinch some leaves whenever you like and live well and healthy. These herbs are very rich in vitamins and minerals, and that's a fact.

Happy indoor gardening!

Until next time,

Grand-paw Mike