It’s not surprising that the most common landscape design question that I get is -  “where do I begin?” or “how do I start my design?”. I know it can be difficult. And especially if you don’t have a vision for your design.

So where do you begin? How do you start your landscape or garden design?

While every design is different and every designer follows a set of rules and principles, I find that most do it yourselfers all have the greatest success from using the same starting point. Begin by laying down any paths, driveways, access routes, or walk areas that might be needed.  And also create access to any areas that you may  plan on creating. In many designs, this will help to establish a framework that you can simply design around.

Of course, this won’t be applicable in all designs as many don’t require any access or travel. So take and use this advice where and if you can.

Paths and walkways can accomplish many functions in your landscape or garden. Their main function, of course, is to create a designated space for people to walk on.

However, in design and as an aid to design, their function could be to guide your visitors to, through, or away from some other area in the garden. Also, they’re a great way to break up a vast expanse of lawn, meadow, or bed area.

First, let’s look at walkways, paths, and such as necessary elements.

Walkways are needed to guide visitors or yourself to and from another area. Observe that almost every home has a walkway leading to the front door, which is, of course, where most folks want to invite guests to come. So walks, whether refined (brick, flagstone, etc.) or primitive (gravel, mulch, etc.), are necessary to “guide” or “lead” visitors to, through, or away from an area.

So where are the necessary areas where you need other walkways or access? Maybe from the back door to the alley where you dump the trash. Or from the house to the pool area. Or from the pool area to the kids play area or the outdoor cooking area. You get the picture.

In a design sense.

Establishing walk, drive, and access areas will in turn help to create borders and boundaries. Once you have your walkways laid out, you can simply design a lot of the landscaping around them. The same goes with driveways and parking areas as well. You can plant beds on either or both sides of a walk or use a walkway as an edge to create borders.

Keep it interesting if you can.

If you were to, for instance,  plan to place a sitting area at the back of the garden. Of course you would need some type of path for you and your guests to get there. However, instead of plotting a straight path, why not create a winding tour through other interesting areas of the garden on the way there?

Curves and winding paths do more than just create interest. They can also create an illusion of more space, distance, and travel. This is especially useful in creating small gardens and landscapes.

Once you lay down walkways, driveways, and access areas, you’ll have a good starting framework for the rest of the design. Now, simply design around them.

Do you want to create your own herb garden but do not like the idea of hard work? Smile, because I have just the right solution for you – a mini herb garden in the size that you prefer!

First of all you may discover that maintaining an average size garden may not be hard work as in hard labour that one would baulk at. Think of it more like playing squash – hard work that you enjoy. And that is the way allotments owners feel. So having a garden may just mean not having to go to the gym. I think that’s cool because gardening gives the added benefit of a harvest of herbs in the end, in addition to the exercise bit.

But what if you can proportionately reduce the amount of maintenance required to a minimum? Would you then embark on creating your own garden of choice now?

Well today I want to introduce you to the mini herb garden.

But be fore-warned that the herbs you will be harvesting may just lead you into an adventure to explore the different cuisines from around the world. At the very least, you could be sipping relaxing chamomile tea on some mildly humid evening in the garden with that someone special, or to strip away all the stress from work. Some of the herbs from your mini herb garden may even make your life more comfortable by relieving some ailment that might be bugging you. As a former insomniac, I know what it means to be able to take a few drops of valerian tincture to help me go to sleep.

Now many people argue that the only true mini herb garden still has to be the one in the ground outside your house but I am of the opinion that the following are mini herb gardens that you may consider growing. Your final choice may depend on:

1. The amount of space you have available, indoors or outdoors.

2. Whether you want to have the convenience of the plants being actually in the house (meaning you do not have to go outside in the wind or rain to pick your herbs)

3. Whether you actually physically enjoy being in your own aromatic garden where you can sit and smell the aromas of your plants.

4. The conditions of the actual spot you are contemplating – like how much sun it receives, the type of soil on the ground and if it will get enough water naturally.

5. Whether you prefer to be able to control your garden environment so that you have crops to pick most year round.

And so on.

The type of mini herb garden you finally decide on will also depend on how much time you are willing to joyfully spend in it. So you may for example choose an herb garden kit because maintaining it will require the least amount of effort.

To my mind a mini herb garden can be any one of the following:

1. What some people would say is the true mini herb garden in a four by six foot plot of ground, whether it is in your backyard or on the rooftop!

2. A one-pot mini herb garden. This is a specially made ceramic pot that has “holes” located all around it from top to bottom into which you would put your young herb plants as you fill the pot up with your growing media of a suitable soil mix.

3. A flourishing garden contained in a herb garden kit

4. A mini herb garden can also be that container of herbs that sits on your windowsill or in individual pots arranged on a stepped bench beside it. I have seen decorative metal structures that have pot holders that branch out from the main central “pole”. These arrangements can be set beside the windowsill so long as it does not obstruct traffic flow.

5. An arrangement made up of herbs contained in individual pots in some area in the house, usually the kitchen, can also be construed to be an indoors mini herb garden.

6. It may also be an arrangement of a number of smaller herb plants in a large bowl much like a flower or plant arrangement that is displayed for decorative purposes. Like in a flower arrangement, the bowl or container used is entirely up to your imagination.

7. It may also be that outdoor area on your patio where you have placed several potted herb plants.

The actual herbs that you decide to grow will depend very much on the type of garden you have chosen to build.

Why not take your time and enjoy every process of creating your own mini herb garden, from the planning and designing stage down to when you experiment with your crops in your kitchen. Do not hurry because every stage of this new hobby can be a great adventure in itself.

Better still enjoy this process even fuller by downloading “Successful Herb Gardening ~ Step-By-Step”, the guaranteed expert guide to designing and creating the ideal garden for you.

In seed selection the entire plant is to be considered. Is it sturdy, strong, well shaped and symmetrical; does it have a goodly number of fine blossoms? These are questions to ask in seed selection.

In seed selection size is another point to hold in mind. Now we know no way of telling anything about the plants from which this special collection of seeds came. So we must give our entire thought to the seeds themselves. It is quite evident that there is some choice; some are much larger than the others; some far plumper, too. By all means choose the largest and fullest seed. The reason is this: When you break open a bean and this is very evident, too, in the peanut you see what appears to be a little plant. So it is. Under just the right conditions for development this ‘little chap’ grows into the bean plant you know so well.

There is often another trouble in seeds that we buy. The trouble is impurity. Seeds are sometimes mixed with other seeds so like them in appearance that it is impossible to detect the fraud. Pretty poor business, is it not? The seeds may be unclean. Bits of foreign matter in with large seed are very easy to discover. One can merely pick the seed over and make it clean. By clean is meant freedom from foreign matter. But if small seed are unclean, it is very difficult, well nigh impossible, to make them clean.

Small seeds that germinate at fifty per cent may be used, but this is too low of a per cent for the large seed. So suppose we test beans. The percentage is seventy. If low-vitality seeds were planted, we could not be absolutely certain of the seventy per cent coming up. But if the seeds are lettuce go ahead with the planting.

Fighting Plant Enemies

Two devices and implements that are used for fighting plant enemies are: (First) those used to afford mechanical protection to the plants; (second) those used to apply insecticides and fungicides.

For applying poison powders, the home gardener should supply himself with a powder gun. If one must be restricted to a single implement, however, it will be best to get one of the hand-power, compressed-air sprayers. These are used for applying wet sprays, and should be supplied with one of the several forms of mist-making nozzles, the non-clog gable automatic type being the best. For more extensive work a barrel pump, mounted on wheels, will be desirable, but one of the above will do a great deal of work in little time. Extension rods for use in spraying trees and vines may be obtained for either. For operations on a very small scale a good hand-syringe may be used, but as a general thing it will be best to invest a few dollars more and get a small tank sprayer, as this throws a continuous stream or spray and holds a much larger amount of the spraying solution. Whatever type is procured, get a brass machine it will out-wear three or four of those made of cheaper metal, which succumbs very quickly to the, corroding action of the strong poisons and chemicals used in them.

Another class of garden implements are those used in pruning but where this is attended to properly from the start, a good sharp jack-knife and a pair of pruning shears will easily handle all the work of the kind necessary.

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Home, decoration and furniture

The botanical name of sweet Marjoram, as it is most often called, is Origanum Majorana. The plant is very fragrant and has many uses in the kitchen. It is native to the Mediterranean and was named Marjoram, which means “joy of the mountains,” by the Greeks.

Marjoram prefers a sunny location that is warm. The soil mixture should contain equal parts sand, oil, and peat moss, with one tablespoon of lime and a half-cup of small gravel added to each quart of the mixture. New plants can be started from seed or from cuttings.

Keep the soil mixture just barely moist and wash the leaves monthly with a solution of one tablespoon mild dishwashing detergent to one pint of warm water. I kept two plants last winter in a south window and they were always a source of beauty as well as sweet aroma.

Marjoram is an annual plant that will not survive winters in climates where the ground freezes. If it is grown strickly indoors in pots, a plant will last for several years and new plants are easy to acquire by rooting cuttings. The seeds take three to four weeks to germinate and for that reason, i find it best to take cuttings from plants in the summer to develop for pot growth in winter.

Oregano

Oregano is really wild Marjoram and requires the same care and potting mix. The leaves of Oregano are oval shaped and about one inch long. If pinched at the top, it will make a nice bushy compact plant. The leaves are green and somewhat hairy and grow on stems that can be as tall as two feet. Indoors, the plants are usually cultivated to about ten inches.

This plant will tend to grow in a mound indoors, but ourdoors it grows more upright and is something mistaken for a mint. The botanical name of Oregano is Origanum Vulgare. The herb has many of the same uses as Marjoram and one is often substituted for the other. It is used particularly in dishes of Italian, Mexican and Spanish origin.

Oregano is a perennial plant and can be cultivated ourdoors through the winter. New plants can be raised from seed that germinate in about one month. A plant can also be multiplied by cuttings or dividing. The roof system has a tendency to run and will spread easily when it is well-established.

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Home and Family Tips

Fall Rose Care
How should I put my roses to bed for the winter?
Continue to water your roses until the first hard frost. Clean up and carefully discard aby debris -leaves, branches, and flower petals- from around rosebushes to prevent diseases and pests. Then apply fungicide to dispel any lingering blackspot or mildew spores. For climbing roses, take down the canes and lay them in shallow trenches or pin them to the ground in preparation for mulching.

Move potted roses into an unheated garage or basement for the winter. Gather lightweight mulching materials, such as shredded bark, straw, or evergreen boughs and once the ground has frozen, apply 2 to 3 inches around the roots of the rosebush. Protect the crown by heaping soil over the area where the two parts of the plant have been grafted together.

This is supposedly the best variety for culinary use. It has light green leaves that sometimes have a purple leaves tinge on the underside. The leaves are oval shaped and toothed on the edge. Another variety has curly, and still another has purple leaves with slight coppery tint to them.

These plants generally grow to two feet in height in the garden, but indoors, by pinching, they can be maintened at about eight inches. They are grown quite easily from seed that germinate in about ten days. Basil is annual herb and will not winter outside in areas that are not frost-free.

The plant prefers a sunny location with a soil mixture containing equal parts sand, soil and peat moss. Add one-half cup of dried cow manure to this soil mixture and forget further feeding. Keep the soil mixture just barely moist and pinch the tops frequently to encourage a compact growth habit as well as prevent the plant from flowering. As with Parsley herb, flowering causes the leaves to lose their best flavouring qualities.

There are other rose-scented varieties, that are interesting, with fragrances that are different but still delightful. Park`s Seed Company list four rose scented varieties: mint-rose, camphor rose, capitatum and graveolens. Besides having these refreshing scents, these plants have blossoms. They are not as showy as the other geraniums, but they are pretty and most are delicate, with colors of white-lavender and rose-pink.

The growth habits of Graveolens is upright and they will grow to three or four feet in a clay pot. They can be maintaned at ten inches with occasional prunings. The mint-rose variety has a trailing growth habit and would be a nice hanging basket subject.

Although i do love the smell roses, my favourite variety of scented geranium is Pelargonium Crispum, which smells deliciously of lemon. It has crinkly little leaves on stalks that grow to three feet outside, but inside they do well at a height of about eight inches. My two plants of this variety always look a little upset because I cannot resist pinching off little pieces to smell. After I have cleaned a stalk with this little habit, I break it back to about half its length and new little shoots continue to produce on the sides.

Other variety of geraniums smell of apples, the variegated variety of crispum smells of peaches, and one variety scabrum smells of apricots. Another plant that is a good hanging basket, Grossularioides, smells of coconut. I also like the variety fragrans that smells like nutmeg. It has small, rounding leaves that are grey-green color. The lime-scented variety probably has the showiest blossoms. They are prolific bloomers and the lavender flowers are very pretty againts the plants light green ruffly foliage.

The errors are a growing problem, I am sorry for the pun, and must be vigilant. And particularly in the garden of vegetables or fruit, you need special care of these cute and adorable creatures like rabbits and other animals in the process. Rodents are a problem and must be treated not only for the disease.

But it is really all that gardening can be done? If there is more more fruits and vegetables? These are my thoughts, especially when they are on the concept of home gardens. There is much more at ease in the garden for the eye.

Vegetables and fruits, are flowering plants, plants, even the shade of trees. They must be integrated into the development of your garden, so most of them. Then, if you wish, you can create a system of irrigation is a large garden or can not forgive him for the hose and spray only if you wish.

There is no denying how truly good taste freshly harvested tomatoes or peas, fresh from the pod. You smell a handful of teams of cut fruit or fresh rosemary. This is the gardener at home alive.

Soil should be fresh, crisp and not compressed, so that root. Worms and other insects, as envisaged in the draft general gardening.

And last but not least, there should be a place where they feel welcomed and that visitors feel welcome there some place that calls on all corners and crannies to see that this is exactly what to do with the place. And what should be the garden.

The water, soil erosion, landscape, tools and equipment for every liter of lemonade in search of the perfect gardening project. The list is almost endless, and I still is not enough to say that gardening is not cut and dried as it seems.

Trees that slant naturally occur as a result of buff setting winds or deep shade during early development. Whether curved or straight, the whole trunk leans at a definite angle. The stronger roots grow out on the side, away from the angle of the trunk lean, to support the weight.

Almost any type of tree will work well with this style.

This style bears a great similarity to the informal upright.  The trunk can be either curved or straight, but must be on an angle to either the right or left (never to the front), with the apex not directly over the base of the bonsai.

This style is quite a simple one that can be achieved by many methods. At an early age, the bonsai can be trained to an angle by means of wiring the trunk until it is in position. Alternatively, the tree can be forced to grow in a slanted style by putting the actual pot on a slant, causing the tree to grow abnormally.

With formal upright, informal upright and slanted styles, the number three is significant.

The lowest branches are grouped in threes, and this grouping begins one-third of the way up the trunk. The bottom-most three branches almost encircle the trunk, with two branches thrusting forward, one slightly higher than the other. The third branch, emanating from a point between the first two, is set at such an angle as to make the foliage appear lower than the other two.

This pattern presents an easy way to tell front from back and sets the tone of the entire composition.