There are over 5,000 varieties of roses in the U.S. alone, and once you start growing your own you are apt to change your preferences from season to season.

In selecting roses, it is important to get healthy plants. Stems should be green and un-shriveled, roots moist and partly fibrous. The most expensive rose is not always the best rose; it may be only a newcomer, much discussed and, therefore, a favorite.

In general, there are two types of roses: bush roses (similar to shrubs) and climbers (producing canes that require some sort of support). In the bush classification, the predominant type is the hybrid tea; it accounts for over 60% of all roses grown in America. The other major bush types are the polyanthas (roses in large clusters), the fioribundas (large-flowered polyanthas), and the hybrid perpetuals (vigorous growers with a great crop in June and continuous blooming throughout the summer).

The climbers include ramblers, whose long pliant canes have large clusters of small roses that can be used for covering walls, fences and banks. The climbers also are pillar roses, adapted to growing near buildings and on posts and the climbing hybrid tree.

Front Yard Landscaping

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For a large tree, drive or bore a number of 1 1/2 inch holes 3 to 5 inches deep and 3 feet apart, below the outer branches. Use a canvas hose or cover the hose with a gunny sack and let the water run. When planting new trees or small trees, if you put a few pieces of drain tile in the hole and put the hose in these, you can insure the water reaching the subsoil. Cover the drain-tile holes with stones to avoid evaporation.

Tips On Care

Certain trees will not live long if a fill of soil is laid over their roots, or if a terrace of blacktop, stone, brick or concrete paving blocks is laid over their feeding roots. Large, valuable trees should be protected with drain tile so that they will get water and air. The bark should be protected from dirt from a fill directly against it. You can buy metal tree wells, 3 to 7 feet across and 1 to 3 feet high, or build a masonry wall.

The wall can be capped with a circle of bricks or a low wall to make an extra seat on the terrace. If you have some surface other than sod or earth around the tree, see that it does not extend as far as the tree’s outer feeding roots, and leave a circle of natural soil around the trunk. This can be planted.

Care for your trees as injuries occur rather than wait to call in a tree surgeon and allow a weakened spot to remain untreated.  Remove all dead, decayed, diseased or injured bark.  Do this by removing the entire limb, or, on a large limb or trunk, dig out the decayed matter, sterilizing and waterproofing the cut surfaces with creosote and liquid tar. White lead or paint are not as good to use as they will not seal when used on damp surfaces. Fill deep wounds with concrete. Use a pruning hook carefully, avoiding bruises.

Front Yard Landscaping

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An avid cyclist designed these marvelous working gloves. They have an upper layer of breathable green nylon mesh, paired with a synthetic suede palm. They may also be the only garden gloves with a built in terrycloth brow wipe for those hot happy hours out in the sun. You can wash these wonders if you can ever give them up for an hour.

Buy/More Info

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On the other hand, a front landscaping project such as an outdoor living room, cooking and entertaining facilities, may have been overlooked in the past because it sounded too difficult to achieve.  And yet these seemingly difficult features can add  a great deal to your enjoyment and may, depending on what type you choose, be obtained with relatively little effort and cost!
 
Front Landscaping Essentials

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.  The unfortunate trend of developers cutting down trees in a wholesale manner, and the increased use of treeless fields for new building, has focused attention on the property owner who usually must begin with nothing when it comes to trees. Architects agree that a single shade tree, even of medium height, can make a tremendous difference in the comfort and livability of your front landscaping.

A Good Lawn – A basic requirement for attractive and enjoyable front landscaping is a good lawn. When planting a tree you do so realizing that you are planting for years to come, even for future generations. Few realize, however, that fine lawns must be planted in the same spirit.

Flowers – You will want flowers for cutting, as well as flowers for contributing cheerfulness and charm to your front landscaping. The aim of the successful gardener is to have a regular succession of flowers from early spring to late fall.  You can plan from the start to have perennials which bloom at different seasons, (for example, iris, which reaches the peak of its bloom just as the peony season begins). 

Foundation Planting – The special planting which is set close to the house is called foundation planting and has great importance to front landscaping since it can improve and enhance the proportions of your house, as well as relate the house to the grounds.

Outdoor Living Room – One way to extend your house is to use your outdoor space to full advantage. And many homeowners make rooms look larger by visually extending them into the lawn or garden.

Service Area – Plan to have your service area out of sight of the front landscaping yet close enough so that it is convenient. 

Paths and Walks – Planning your front landscaping driveway and walks, so that they take up a minimum amount of room and yet provide a strong enough surface for the traffic they will bear, calls for careful thinking.

Garden Pools and Fountains – Water, in almost any form, enriches your front landscaping and delights the senses.

Check out some of our other posts to learn more about front landscaping.

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