Idea And Planning: garden

Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Thinking Spring Color in the Garden Part I Evergreens

Hinoki Cypress Crippsi

The snow is finally starting to melt here in the northeast and thoughts of spring and returning to the garden are going through my mind. Since evergreens are the "foundation" of the garden I am going to start with these wonderful all season interest plantings. Evergreens of course are known for their ability to screen, add privacy to a spot and serve as the ultimate backbone of the garden. Evergreens can sometimes be underestimated with the misunderstanding that they lack color and variety of texture but quite the opposite is true. These dependable additions can add variety and color twelve months of the year. The varieties I will be discussing do apply to zone 7 but are quite versatile and can be used in a number of climate zones.

Some of my favorite evergreens for brightening up any garden include the genus picea (spruce), chamaecyparis (cypress), juniperus (juniper) and cedrus (cedar). In the spruce catergory-the Colorado Blue Spruce Hoopsi is a favorite which grows to an average of fifteen feet in 10 years, stays at smaller size than an ordinary spruce and exhibits a characteristic blue color throughout the year. A smaller globe variety shrub form of the blue spruce is the Montgomery Globe Spruce, another nice addition to any well lit garden.

Gold Mop Cypress

The genus chamaecyparis includes my favorite golden additions to the garden including chamaecyparis pisifera Gold Mop-an evergreen shrub growing to approximately three feet in height over time, much smaller than its predecessor the Gold Thread cypress which can reach an eventual height of fifteen feet. The Crippsi Cypress is a lovely larger form of chamaecyparis reaching fifteen to thirty feet over time and the dwarf golden form of hinoki cypress chamaecyparis obtusa Nana Aurea only reaches about four feet and is a prize in the landscape. I must not forget to mention another golden variety - a personal favorite of evergreen which is not a cypress but rather the genus picea (spruce) which I have recently added to my garden. If you area a spruce enthusiast then the Oriental Gold Spruce, picea Skylands is by all means one of the most beautiful evergreen trees imaginable and makes a grand stand alone statement to the evergreen-perennial garden.

Juniperus Blue Star

In the genus juniperus there are so many selections as well but the two I favor for instant color are juniperus blue star - blue in color as the name indicates and juniperus gold lace-not as golden as the gold mop cypress but rather a mix of green and gold and bit more whispy in the garden. Those of you who would like a little gold in the garden but not too much would prefer this particular evergreen.

Deodara Cedar

Last but by no means least are the Cedars. Cedrus deodara Aurea is magnificiant golden cedar which steals the show for any area where you have good lighting and plenty of space. This beauty can serve as an "anchor plant for a foundation planting but allow it enough area to grow and make sure the center portion of the tree is planted an average of seven to ten feet away from the foundation (the further the better) to ensure proper distance from the exterior of your home- then enjoy this beauty. Two other stand alone pieces in the genus cedrus are cedrus atlantica Glauca Pendula and cedrus atlantica Glauca-both blue in color similar to the blue spruce however less of a "bottle brush" look to the needles as in the genus picea. The weeping form (pendula) can be used as a foundation planting or in any garden and the later upright form can be used as a stand alone piece where they is plenty or room as it can also reach up to eighty feet in height under optimum conditions.

Cedrus atlantica Pendula
(Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar)

I am hoping you have found the information in the above segment both informative and useful. This is the first in a series of three articles on color in the garden. Parts II and III will focus on the usage of flowering shrubs and perennials to add everlasting color and interest to your landscape.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Ikebana Exhibit at the Portland Japanese Garden

Portland Japanese Garden Ikebana Exhibitions

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Front Garden Design How to Make Your Front Yard Look Amazing!

Learning a few tricks of the trade will enable your Front yard to be streets ahead of your whole neighborhood. Its not as hard as you think to create a great looking Front Garden.

The real key to having a stunning Front yard is to first and foremost, make it look like a Garden. Even if it needs to be functional with a drive and access to a garage or path to your Front door, these should be secondary to your Front yard being a beautiful Garden.

How to Plan Your Front Yard

The way to achieve this is to think about how you would want your Garden to look if it didnt need to be functional. So, if you have a drive or a path to consider, just imagine how you would landscape your yard if those werent needed. By taking away the functional, practical aspect and just allowing yourself to be creative, you will come up with a much better Design than if you concentrated on the functional first.

Once you have in your mind your ideal Garden, see how you can get it to look like that but with the incorporation your drive and your path etc. Youll find tackling it this way round will make a tremendous difference to how it looks.

Choose Your Shape Carefully

Try using shapes that will make the most use of the space you have available. Curves and circles, for example, are very good at making areas look bigger, as well as softening the lines of the house.

Getting the shape right in the Design process, before you even consider putting any plants or features in, will ensure you a greater degree of success than if you just concentrate on plants alone. Plants obviously are very important to any Garden but unless the shape is right to begin with, they will never really do it justice.

Another key thing to think about is which is your most important viewpoint? Do you want the Garden to look the best as you approach the house from the road, or do you want your view out of the window to look the best? Once you know the answer to that question, this will then help you guide your Design in the best way.

Its important to put your ideas down on paper before you start to build anything. Its much easier to change things on paper than it is on the ground, and considerably less expensive!