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Monday, June 30, 2008

Water Garden Landscaping Tips

Water Garden LandscapingWater gardens are one of the most attractive kinds of gardens. Aside from the plants around it, the fishes swimming around a water gardens pond makes it lively and unique.

Water garden landscaping is more complex than landscaping a normal garden. There are a lot of things that should be considered since it involves a lot of excavation and water treatment.

Since water garden landscaping presents special problems, it is important to plan the place out. First, the design and landscape of the garden should be drawn on paper.

Furthermore, the design should include the dimensions of the garden, how deep the pond is and the layout of the entire area.

After the design is finalized, a flexible item such as a rope or a garden hose is used to establish the pond’s form. After marking the layout with spray paint, the excavation of the pond may begin.

This is a tedious and exacting job so people may want to hire professionals or excavators to do the job. When all of the soil is taken out, it is time for the second part of water garden landscaping, which is to install the plumbing.

This is necessary to make decorative waterfalls or fountains work. When the plumbing is finished, the soil at the bottom and around the excavation should be covered up with a sort of liner to contain the water. Most liners are made out of waterproof cement.

At this stage, it is also important to make the pond’s lip extra sturdy by leveling that area out and filling it with cement. This perimeter is called a coping shelf and it provides support for the garden’s other features.

When the coping shelf is dry and covered with garden soil, boulders that serve as decorations for the pond’s perimeter should be installed. Lay them out according to the plan, installing the larger ones first.

The boulders can also be used to conceal hoses, plumbing, tanks, wires and other functioning equipment. Nothing can spoil the natural beauty of a water garden than visible pipes sticking out of the landscape.

The next stage of water garden landscaping is planting the vegetation itself. For this purpose, low maintenance plants are usually favored. With the vegetation planted in the soil, mulch should be added to make the plants fertile.

While the perimeter is bristling with plants and rocks, the pond should not be left out. Rocks and aquatic plants should be carefully arranged at the bottom of the pond. When this is done, it is time to fill up the pond with water.

Adding the fishes is the final stage of water garden landscaping. Carps and goldfishes are popular choices because they are very colorful.

Water gardens add a lot of life to a place. Although it is complex and expensive, the spectacular beauty is well worth the cost.


Make Your Working Place Look More Attractive With Indoor Bonsai Trees!

indoor bonsai treeAn inside bonsai tree is going to be a great looking creature. They are going to be formal plants that sit up and are going to be different from anything else that you have ever seen.

You will notice that you are going to love the way that these indoor bonsai trees look and how they make you feel as well.

The formal indoor bonsai tree is going to be known by the trunk and the tree branches that taper off and look unique. The informal look is the one that will bend and curve over slightly and will be the one that you see the most of.

You will notice that many people have these inside bonsai trees in their homes. They are going to be the most popular tree that you see.

The cascade and semi cascade indoor bonsai trees are going to be the molded trees that will grow over water and on the side of mountains. The semi cascade does not lean as much downhill as the cascade style does.

The raft looking bonsai trees are going to be planted on their side and can also include many others styles like the sinuous, straight, and the group planting styles. These will be the ones that give off the illusion of a group of beautiful trees and will actually be the branches of the tree that is grown on its side.

Anthurium- an indoor bonsai tree:

The anthurium is the most popular indoor bonsai tree and the one that will have the lasting flowers. These are going to be a beautiful looking red and will be the best known flowers in the world when it comes to the bonsai style.

The Real Hawaiian lava rock is going to be the bonsai tree that is hand selected to give off a happy home for the Anthodium and it will be a special tree that many love for different reasons.

Jasmine is the plant that has the busy vines that have trained to have its own tree form. It is going to have shiny and dark leaves and great smelling white flowers that you absolutely fall in love with from the start.

The waxy snow is going to be the flowers that are going to be larger and will have a great looking cluster about them.

You can make your home look great with all the different colors of indoor bonsai trees and you will love the way that your home looks as well as smells. You will feel good and have a great time placing all of your favorite indoor bonsai trees anywhere that you want.


Different Tree Shapes For Making Tree Attractive

Tree ShapesThrough the use of prune techniques, it is possible to shape your tree to certain style. There are seven main tree shapes that all have their own benefits for certain situations.

During the growth of the tree, simply cut off the unneeded branches, tie the wanted branches into the proper tree shape, and you will be able to shape it however you want.

However, for some of the more advanced tree shapes, equally advanced pruning techniques are required. There are many books written on this subject.

Usually, if you’re trying to get your tree to a certain tree shape, all the tying and pruning should occur in the fall. This will encourage the shape to stick, since no fruits will be produced at that point in time.

Each of the different tree shapes is very useful in certain situations. So, here are some different types of tree shapes you are able to choose from.

Standard tree shape-one of the important tree shape:

Standard trees hardly need any explanation. These are the varieties that are most common, and probably what you picture when you think of any tree. No specific shaping is required to get the tree shape to take this form. Just let it go and prune it as you would normally, and unless you have a strangely deformed tree then it should end up being a standard tree.

It is possible to turn a standard tree shape into a bush tree through pruning. The branches take the same shape, but the stem or trunk of the tree is noticeably shorter. This can be beneficial if you want to grow trees, but don’t want to block the view. For example, your house has a great view of the Rocky Mountains. You didn’t want to sacrifice this gorgeous view, so you grow trees up as bush trees.

Cordons tree –one of the different tree shapes:

Cordons are a type of tree that you might not be familiar with. It consists of one stem with no branches. It is planted at an angle so that it arches up over the ground. Through the course of its growth, all branches are removed. These are beneficial because they take up very small amounts of space and more can be fit in a certain square footage. The only negative aspect is that they produce smaller amounts of fruit per tree.

Espalier tree-one of the tree shapes:

Espalier trees grow with a single vertical stem in the center, and several horizontal branches on each side. These allow for long rows of trees, while still producing large amounts of fruit. If you operate an orchard, you probably use this tree shape to fit as many trees as possible into the area you have.

Fan trees-tree one of the tree shapes:

Fan trees use the same theory as espalier trees. However, the shape is slightly different. The same central vertical stem is used, but the connected branches are not horizontal; they grow in the same pattern as a standard tree, only they are two dimensional rather than three dimensional. They are also used to save space, and are used instead of espalier trees for certain types of trees that do better with sloped branches.

Another type of espalier is the step-over espalier. They are like a normal espalier, but with just one horizontal branch very close to the ground. They are particularly interesting because they still produce delicious fruit while providing a border for whatever you want. You have used step-over trees to fence of your garden. They are definitely your favorite tree shape, mainly because they are like a fence that bears fruit. What’s not to love?

As you can see, each of these shapes has its own benefits and negative aspects as well. If any of these sounds like they would be a good fit for your garden, you can ask your local nursery employees for advice on reading material that will help you achieve your goals. Most of the time, getting the tree into the desired tree shape is a very easy process and just requires some guidance at the beginning.