Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Landscape Gardening

Writen by Robbie Darmona

Few people know how to improve their gardens. Many of us have grown so accustomed to the vertical rectangular beds of flowers and the quadrangle greenery zones, that we don't even get to think how to change that. Landscape gardening is the way to increase the natural look of your garden and turn it into something more beautiful and attractive. Many people would give a lot of money to achieve a better look of their gardens. But why spend a sum of fortune, when you can actually do it yourselves? Yes, yourselves. Landscape gardening can be done by almost everyone with basic carpentry skills. It is an easy procedure that virtually transfers your garden into architectural beauty.

What you need is some time off, and some cedar boards and screws. The idea came to me from a garden project magazine, where architecture of simple raised strawberry and herb gardens was presented. By that time I already had my rectangular flowerbeds in the backyard, and I was getting really tired of them. Suddenly, to my mind cropped up that raised gardens could be used not only for strawberry or herb growing. It could be used to enhance the landscape of my own commonplace garden! That was my first step in landscape gardening. My second one was that I ran to the garage and picked up my carpentry tools, which I was going to use for the construction.

How did the construction work take place? I used similar plans like those in the magazine for creating raised strawberry garden tiers. The difference was that I made three large squares out of the cedar boards size 1'' to 6''. The design was simple and the price of all was close to minimal. Remember that doing landscape gardening and creating a new design for you garden doesn't always include expensive operations and sophisticated skills. You just need to keep the enthusiasm, and that will certainly happen if carpentry is your passion. It happened to become mine and doing my design gave me great satisfaction.

My idea was to build some kind of a pyramid, by putting the largest square, 48 '' on a side, at the basis. The second square was 32'' on a side, and was put over the soil of the first one, at a 90 angle to the one beneath it. The top square, size 21'' on a side, was put over the second one, turned at 90 angles to the one beneath it. It worked perfect and the result was overwhelming!

Afterwards I built two more sets with one and two levels, and my garden really became futuristic. The vertical levels gave a broader perspective of the garden, and wholly changed the landscape. The squares looked like diamonds, when they were turned at an angle. I composted the soil and replanted the potted perennials, which I had uprooted during construction work. The pyramid was located at the center of the garden, and that turned out to be the perfect place. With each tier having been turned at a different angle, different diamond shapes and multi-dimensional structure occurred. I created a number of triangular shapes as well. In winter, all the different shapes would make my garden more interesting. The cedar boards added to the woody atmosphere. After some time, they would acquire silver-gray color that would give some authenticity of the landscape. I put strategically orientated fieldstones, bricks and stepping-stones, so that a more naturalistic look was acquired. This way of landscape gardening not only changed the flatness of my garden by adding vertical dimensions, but it also created beautiful series of interesting patterns.

Of course, that was just an example. If you get involved with landscape gardening, you can find your own ways to make your garden more attractive. The important thing is to use your imagination. Landscape gardening doesn't require anything more than this. The expenses are negligibly small, and you don't need to be a professional carpenter to understand what it is all about

For more information click Landscape Gardening Article by Robbie Darmona - an article writer who writes on a wide variety of subjects.

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