When choosing landscape shrubs and bushes, the home gardener is often overwhelmed by the range and variety available today. Here are some guidelines for thinking as would a professional designer.
A professional garden designer chooses landscape shrubs and bushes in a certain way, while an inexperienced home gardener chooses them in another. The novice tends to go for plants that he or she has seen and liked in parks, gardens, and nurseries. The landscape architect or garden designer on the other hand, while taking personal preference into account, works according to a set of principles, which unlike other aspects of design, can be readily applied by the average home gardener.
Landscape shrubs and bushes are a vital part of garden design and composition. In order to use them most effectively, their design role should be clearly understood.
Landscaping shrubs and bushes have a number of functions in the garden. In the abstract, landscape architects and designers see them as the “walls? of the garden, whereas trees and prostrate plants are viewed respectively, as its “ceiling? and the “floor?. Shrubs and bushes, by virtue of their dimensions, are the one group of landscape plants that relate to human beings in terms of scale ? both trees and low-growing plants being either beyond or beneath the size that relate to people. As the usual height of garden shrubs is between 1 to 3 meters (3-9ft) it follows that people eye them without either having to look upwards in the case of trees, or downwards with flowers or ground covers. The psychological significance of this “humanizing? function of shrubs and bushes, is usually missed by the average home gardener,
While there is no shortage of plants with colored leaves, the home gardener does not always choose them wisely. Here are some tips for getting the best out of them, and avoiding some of then pitfalls.
There is a large range of plants with colored foliage available to the gardener today. Reddish-purple, golden-yellow, silver, and grey-leaved plants, not to speak of the many types of variegated leaf, abound in nurseries and garden centers. Amongst all the plant forms ? from trees to ground covers, one can find varieties that have brightly colored leaves. The challenge is to use them wisely and not be carried away by false notions of novelty or originality.
The immense benefits of drip irrigation are often lost because of a few avoidable mistakes. Here are some tips for getting the most from your dripper system.
Other than lawns, watering the garden plants by means of drip irrigation is unquestionably more effective than by sprinklers and more efficient in terms of water management. Roughly speaking, drip irrigation, if installed and applied correctly, can save at least 20% of the water that is lost in run-off, especially where trees and shrubs are concerned. However, the great benefits of drip irrigation are often not attained by the home gardener, because three aspects are not addressed properly.