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Putting in a flowerbed is a great way to add a splash of color and charm to your lawn, and turn an ordinary yard into a place to stop and smell the roses. All it takes is a little dirt work and a weekend afternoon, and you’ll be ready to plant azaleas and daisies to your heart’s content.

The first step is to decide the “”where and how big” question. There are a few things to keep in mind when making these choices, such as proximity to a water faucet (Or whether you need to buy a new, longer hose), what types of flowers you want to plant (Do they need full-sun or shade? Keep in mind that if your location will receive less than six-hours a day of sun, you will need to choose shade varieties of flowers, while more than six hours of sun requires sun-loving varieties), and how much time you want to commit to maintenance (Weeds love flowerbeds, too, and a smaller flowerbed means less to weed). Once you have chosen a location, you can mark the perimeter of the flowerbed using string or a hose. This provides a great visual that can easily be adjusted before you commit to digging.

After you have the flowerbed marked out exactly how you want it to be, it’s time to start digging. Use a shovel or spade to cut through the sod and remove the grass and roots from the flowerbed area. Take your time–this can be backbreaking work! Make sure you put all the sod into a wheelbarrow or bucket and dispose of away from your work-zone, or your flowerbed will inevitably revert back to its origin as part of your lawn.

Once you have the sod removed, surround the flowerbed with whatever edging you have chosen. There are lots of options, from brick, stone, and pavers, to landscaping timbers and vinyl. You will need to dig down a few inches to install your flowerbed perimeter, depending on your edging choice, in order to imbed the edging and ensure stability. If the soil is especially bad in your yard, it can be easier to build your flowerbed edging up and add garden soil, creating a raised flowerbed, than to dig the existing ground and amend the soil.

Now that the edging is installed, it’s time to prepare the dirt. If your flowerbed is raised, this is just a matter of filling it in with garden soil, humus and organic compost, and mixing with either a tiller or turning it over by hand with a shovel. If you have a lower flowerbed, or if you want to use some of the native soil in your flowerbed, it’s digging time again. You will need to dig down approximately eight-inches to a foot, loosening the soil and removing any rocks. Once you have dug up the entire flowerbed, add soil amendments and mix well. A consistently good amendment choice for flowerbeds is organic composts and manures, in addition to whatever amendment you may need for your soil type.

Now, the only thing left to do is add flowers and enjoy. (A little mulch for weed control wouldn’t hurt either).

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If you have an interest in the landscaping that surrounds your house but you are at somewhat at a loss for not knowing exactly where to begin, then you can quite easily discover many different inspiring examples. It might be simply driving around your neighborhood and stopping the vehicle to take a picture of a landscape design that is appealing to you. You may even knock on one of the doors and see if the homeowner will give you some advice on whether they use a professional or if they did it themselves.

Resources of Inspiration

Another good place to get many different ideas for your landscaping projects would be the numerous magazines and books that are published on the topic of design landscapes. Also, nowadays there are numerous different resources that are available online for designing and embellishing the landscape that’s around your house. Quite a few of these websites even offer sample landscape design plans, numerous pictures of various ideas, as well as tips from experts for do-it-yourselfers, and contact information for professional landscape design that are around your area.

Some of the most common features in landscaping for homes are patios and decks. Patios and decks not only provide beauty and are a type of centerpiece to overall landscape design, but they can also add a functionality to your house and furnished outdoor living space as well.

Decks and patios provide you with an excellent place to host family gatherings as well as other types of entertainment. While at the same time, a small patio can be added to a special garden area to make a place for you to get away to relax and be refreshed by the beauty of your natural surroundings. Adding patios and decks, or making different improvements to existing ones, is also an excellent way to add more value to your home as well as increase your equity.

Fountains and Rock Gardens

Nowadays, more frequently, fountains are steadily becoming features of home and garden landscaping. There are the more traditional types, multi-tiered fountains that are reminiscent of European villas and country estates which can add an old world charm to your surroundings.

There are also more modern types of fountains that use specific types of rocks and stones or large ceramic pots which are steadily becoming very popular in different types of landscape architecture. Naturally, there are numerous other creative and beautiful styles that are available on the market today to meet any style and taste.

Rock gardens are also becoming quite popular. These type of gardens have the benefit of being highly attractive, however they generally integrate very few, if any, types of plants. The end result of this is that they are very low maintenance as they need either no watering, or very little, and virtually no weeding, and generally speaking need almost no attention, except to simply sit back and admire how your rock garden adds to the beauty of your overall landscape design.

English Cottage Gardens and Lawns

Emulating an English cottage landscaping garden is an additional home and garden inspiration. These type of gardens are notable for their overall lack of a formal plan. There is very little rigidity in their design with English cottage gardens since the whole idea behind them is to let the plants themselves “just grow” and to let them develop in a more natural, or organic method. These type of gardens have a specific charm to them and very often make individuals feel more relaxed as well is embraced by nature.

Lush green lawns are, in all probability, the most common and largest component of most of the landscaping design plans. A beautiful lawn is very popular since it provides for homeowners with an area where the family can enjoy numerous different types of activities. Lawns are also one of the simplest of the landscape components to maintain as well as staying beautiful for many years afterwards with basic maintenance routines.

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Eventually when the time has arrived to develop new landscaping ideas for your the areas of your home and Garden, there is no better person who has more precise insights into the best way to design the landscape than yourself. It is, after all, the house you live in and you have much better ideas in the way it will be used as well as enjoyed. Even seasoned professional landscape designers will agree that the best landscapes always start with a clear notion of the needs, the people’s tastes, as well as the preferences of the family who will be using these outdoor spaces.

Sharing Landscaping Ideas

If you have plans to upgrade the landscaping around your house, one then one of the best things that you can do is assemble everyone in your family who likes to use the lawns and gardens and have a session for brainstorming. Make sure everyone is comfortable to throw out their ideas regardless of how unrealistic or off-the-wall they may appear to be. Now and then those “off the wall” thoughts and ideas are the ones that will tend to inspire the entire direction of the landscaping design project.

Beginning landscaping improvement plans in this manner will provide you with numerous different ideas for the kind of ways that the family can suggest on making the most of their “outside living room”. This type of action can be a very enjoyable exercise for the whole family to take part in as a group and it will likely create some new ideas. The end result of all this brainstorming will be an attractive garden landscaping plan that will also be a very memorable place to gather for all different kinds of family fun and action.

Your Plans and Professional Help

Naturally, you will always find various situations where it will be difficulty for a family, particularly a family that has members with very strong passionate opinions, to come to any type of agreement about the most ideal way to approach the project. In cases such as these you can always turn to professionals to get some help to nail down your ideas. landscape contractors as well as landscape architects can furnish excellent resources, very helpful as well as creative ideas for your concept of landscaping, and can very often assist families to find compromises in their solutions, if there happens to be a disagreement over the plans for the yard or garden.

However, even in the event that you end up having to call for professional services to help out with your landscaping project of your home and garden, you will not be wasting your time by having a brainstorming session. Frequently the numerous ideas that are created will be a good jumping-off point for the landscaping professional or the contractor.

If given the opportunity, typically all members of the family will be able to provide interesting suggestions and helpful ideas for the landscape plan of the home of the family. The final result will be a concept that very much reflects the needs as well as interest of your family, making it personally yours. The greatest benefit of this is, everybody in your family who participated and ended their contributions will have a good feeling of “proprietorship” in the project as well as a great deal of pride for doing their part in making it happen.

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When we enter the world of evergreens we find there is almost no part of this vast country of ours where they cannot be grown. From the tender Gardenia that blossoms in the genial warmth of a Louisiana garden, to the sturdy Spruces of Alaska, and the Junipers, Pines, and other stalwart conifers that grow into Maine and Canada, these woody ornamentals abound.

From the climatic extremes of the Deep South to the far northern gardens of the United States and Canada, there are countless evergreens that are well adapted to the varying degrees of cold and warmth in the different parts of the country.

Below are two of the most important to help you select those best suited to your climatic conditions and landscape needs.

ACACIA. This beautiful evergreen with its light, feathery foliage and myriads of blooms, is successfully cultivated outdoors in gardens where the temperature does not fall below 15 to 20 F.; the exact temperature varies with the species. Acacias are rapid growers, and excellent for new home owners who desire a quick screen; however, their disadvantage is that they are short-lived trees which reach maturity at the age of about 30 years, after which time they commence to fail.

This need not be too disturbing, since Acacias are easy to raise from cuttings. This plant thrives in well-drained, moist, rich soil to which some leaf mold has been added. A sunny situation is another requisite in its culture. Acacias are heavy feeders and require ample fertilizing. They should be watered liberally, in fact, they should never be allowed to suffer from dryness. Each year after flowering it is advisable to cut the main branches back quite drastically in order to avoid a spindly growth.

Propagation is by cuttings of the half-ripened wood made with a heel (a cutting of the season’s growth which is taken with a small piece of the older wood attached to it). Acacia can also be grown easily from seed. Germination is hastened by soaking the seed in hot water and allowing it to cool; the seed should be allowed to soak in the water for a day or two prior to seeding.

A. decurrens dealbata, Silver Wattle. This Australian species of Acacia can be grown in regions where the temperature does not fall below 15 F. It is a very ornamental, choice tree which sometimes attains a height of 50 feet. This is the species generally found in florists’ shops in the northern part of the United States and is known by the name of “mimosa.” The lovely foliage and fragrant yellow flowers are always a joy.

AZALEA fills a most important role in every home-garden planting; indeed, there is no part of the landscape composition that these beautiful plants do not make lovelier. Along the foundation of the house they are admirable, and they add immensely to the interest of the entrance planting in spring with their profusion of flowers. Used in masses as facers to the taller-growing evergreens and deciduous material, Azaleas are strikingly ornamental.

Along a woodland path, informal, irregular groupings of these plants create an unforgettable picture of spring color; since they prefer a partly shady location they are well adapted for such use, provided the trees are sufficiently high-headed to allow a moderate amount of sunlight to reach them. In common with Rhododendrons, Azaleas should never be cultivated; any weeds that appear through the mulch should be pulled out by hand, to avoid disturbing the shallow feeding roots.

Among the evergreen Azaleas one could hardly find a lovelier choice to make than Rhododendron mucronatum, Snow Azalea. This plant is usually purchased from nurserymen by the familiar names of Azalea ledifolia alba or A. indica alba, and should not be confused with Snow, a Kurume variety. Its large showy white flowers bloom at tulip-time and set off the gay colors of the bulbs to best advantage.

Either of these two lovely evergreens would make a welcome addition to your garden.

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The word lawn comes from the Celtic word Launde or Lande, denoting an uncultivated or untilled and infertile area covered with ferns, broom or heath, certainly not the modern idea of what a lawn is or should be. Because this name conveyed the idea of an expanse of open space, the word gradually came to mean an open grassy glade in the forest.

It was in this sense that Tennyson spoke when he wrote, “Those long, rank dark wood walks, drenched in dew, leading from lawn to lawn.” From this evolved the idea of more or less natural, grassy open spaces, not in woodland but surrounding a house and separating it from the fields and woods. And, of course, the present-day concept of a lawn is of an unbroken expanse of manicured emerald sward, perfect as a golf green.

As a matter of fact, much of our difficulty with lawns and their upkeep comes from this ideal cherished by the average homeowner - the incredible perfection of a golf green in peak condition. For most of us, it is an impossible ideal. Nevertheless, we often see a man whose grounds are shaded by magnificent trees, struggling to produce a perfect expanse of sun-loving grasses that will match the popular concept of what should surround a suburban home.

Adverse Lawn Conditions

In the lawn we crowd as many as forty to sixty individual plants into a square foot of turf. As they struggle to survive under these conditions of intense competition, we further complicate things by cutting away the healthiest, most vigorous part of the leaf - the young tip. We do this not to make things hard for the plant but because we are trying to force a low, compact, artificially dwarfed habit of growth, entirely different from the natural upright habit of these species. (They grow 30 to 40 inches tall in the wild or in a meadow.)

These factors add up to an environment in which the individual plant is suppressed to produce a uniform whole. The grass plants can only survive if aided by you, the lawnowner. It is important that you appreciate the artificial nature of the conditions under which you must operate, so that you will know not only what to do and when, but why. A misguided homeowner is a lawn’s worst enemy.

Easy Information

At the same time, it is important to recognize that not all lawns need to be smooth expanses of green velvet turf from thaw-out in spring to freeze-up in fall. Common Kentucky Bluegrass still has a place where the extra care and expense needed to maintain high quality sod seems too much. There are degrees of lawn excellence, and the choice of the right grasses is dictated by various considerations of sun, soil and so forth.

Summary

Don’t fight nature: Grow the grasses best suited to your lawn’s situation. If grass won’t grow (because of excessive shade, etc.), then plant one of the many handsome ground covers.

Live modern: Make maximum use of the improved knowledge, grass species, lawn tools and materials available today.

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For the most attractive and beneficial use of your grounds, you will want to include in your plans features such as trees, a good lawn and flowers. In this way the grounds will become far more attractive, and will serve as a pleasing backdrop to your house.

Trees - For Shade and Beauty

Perhaps if any one feature can be singled out as basic to successful landscaping, it is the presence of fine trees. Architects agree that a single shade tree, even of medium height, can make a very great difference in the comfort and livability of a house. It is amazing to discover what a tree can do for a house. A tree in leaf, for example, can reduce noises from the street. A tree tall enough to throw shade over the roof can materially reduce heat in summer. Trees can lessen the amount of dust around a house and provide protection from winds.

But there are also the many esthetic considerations. There are the things that shrubs and trees can do to improve the looks of your house itself. Properly situated, they can sharply alter the lines of your house. They can give a small house dignity; appear to reduce the ungainly height of a tall house; soften the lines of a new house and provide welcome contrasts in color and texture. Plan from the beginning to plant new trees that will harmonize with the colors of your house and best suit its architectural style.

Have a Good Lawn

A good lawn is a basic requirement for attractive and enjoyable grounds. When you plant a tree you do so realizing that you are planting for years to come, even for generations. Few realize, however, that lawns must be planted in the same spirit. The lawns of many famous estates were planted over a hundred years ago, and this type of turf, luxuriously verdant, is always an inspiration. Today’s lawn builder is fortunate. The battle against weeds and poor soils can be won.

But obtaining a fine lawn is sometimes a much more complicated matter than scattering seed or plucking weeds. You will want to have your soil analyzed, and then, perhaps, change its make-up. Perhaps you will need to drain or grade. Before you select your seed formula, take into account the use to which your lawn will be put.

Will it be a general-purpose area or will it be a showplace in your garden where you will strive for a putting-green lawn? Except for problem lots in suburban areas, where the living space outside is small and may have to be paved, the lawn will be the broad canvas on which you paint your picture with flowers, shrubs, trees and walks. Keep it larger than any other area, certainly two or three times the width of your borders and beds.

Flowers

You will want flowers for cutting and flowers for contributing gaiety and charm to your grounds. The aim of the successful gardener is to have a succession of flowers from early spring to late fall. You can plan from the beginning to have perennials which bloom at different seasons, (for example, iris, which has the peak of its bloom just as the peony season begins).

Know accurately when the perennials bloom and then plan to fill in the gaps left by their passing with prolific and quick-growing annuals. You can plan to have a potting bed, perhaps in your vegetable garden or in a sheltered spot behind your tool house or garage, where you can grow extra annuals as well as those perennials which do not mind being transplanted. Then when the tulip season passes, for example, you can fill in with another tall bulb, a summer-flowering one, such as, perhaps, the canna lily.

You may have a mixed border of summer-flowering bulbs, perennials and annuals, backed by shrubs. Other designs can be planned for the center of the lawn, for the foundation planting, for the pathways to the house and for the sides of the house.

Thus with the addition of the right trees and flowers and a good lawn, you home will be immeasurably enhanced.

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