25 Nov 2008
Luster Leaf Rapitest Soil pH Meter 1840
Rapitest, Soil PH Meter, Checks Which Plants Suit Your Soil, PH Tells You How To Alter Soil PH, A PH Preference Guide For More Than 400 Plants Is Included With The Meter.
31 Oct 2008
American Beech
Beautiful tree with edible nut. Long-lived and relatively free from insect and fungal diseases. For accent planting. May be clipped, as hedge, for formal settings
American Elm
Very tall, with attractive vase form. Early bloom. Excellent for shade but widely disappearing because of Dutch elm disease, (pulvem necrosis)
American Linden
Tall tree. Provides dense shade. Has fragrant yellowish flowers. Prefers a moderately moist soil.
Chinese Elm
Medium height. Small dense foliage. A rapid grower, excellent for screening or windbreak. A wide spreading tree with slender limbs. Makes good shade in five years.
Hackberry
Usually a small tree, but with a wide spread. Has cherry-like fruit lasting late in winter. Survives drought, hardy in the cities.
Moraine Locust
Majestic tree. Hardy to cold. Survives drought and flooding, smoke and soot. Lawns flourish under it since it is late in leafing, has no seeds to clutter lawn. Fast growing.
Norway Maple
Trees of medium height. Most widely planted street and lawn tree. Dense growth. Symmetrical. Orderly habits—free of insects and disease. Leaves turn bright yellow in fall.
Pin Oak
Remove lower branches if used for lawn tree. Least threatened by disease of all shade trees. Not good in alkali soil. Makes good windbreak. Symmetrical and pyramidal in shape with clean, glossy leaves. Turns scarlet in fall.
Red Oak
Rapid-growing tree with rounded head. A large tree appropriate for large lawns. Has glossy, deep-cut green foliage, which turns deep red in fall.
Silver Maple
Most rapid growing of all maples. A large spreading tree. Well-cut leaf with a silvery cast and silvery bark. Good sap for sugar making. Early blooming.
Sugar Maple
Grows well in any soil. Ideal for street planting as it grows straight and tall and gives good shade. Turns beautiful orange and scarlet in the fall. Source of maple sugar.
White Clump Birch
In natural setting or as lawn specimen, this multiple-stemmed tree is effective. White bark. Upright growth with horizontal branches.
25 Oct 2008
Planting and taking care of a landscaping plant or shrub is a little different then taking care of a tree. For planting, early spring is usually the best time so that the landscaping plant can take advantage of a long growing season and get established before winter weather sets in. This may not be as important to a landscaping plant in more mild climates where transplanting can be done throughout the winter season.
The main cause a landscaping plant dies or grows poorly from transplantation is allowing the roots to get too dry during the process. You can avoid letting the roots get too dry by digging a root ball with each landscaping plant and wrapping it in burlap and keeping it wet, or heeling it in, which simply means temporarily setting the landscaping plants in an area where the roots can be covered with dirt and kept moist.
If you get a landscaping plant from a nursery, be sure to water it immediately. Other steps you can take to ease the process of transplantation for a landscaping plant are:
Provide some shade for the first little while.
Mulch the ground around the landscaping plant to help keep it from drying out.
Prune the landscaping plant back significantly (the older the plant, the more it should be cut back).
Although there are some landscaping plants that can be moved while they are in flower (Forsythia & Azalea for example) most landscaping plants should not be transplanted while in flower.
Another important step to help each landscape plant survive during the winter months is to water them deeply in the fall so that they have a source of moisture when the top of the ground freezes.
Pruning a landscape plant helps keep it more vigorous as it gets older. That doesn’t mean just cutting off all the branches at the same length by topping the plant. Pruning means cutting out the older branches and any damaged branches. In early spring cut out any branches that have been damaged by winter-kill.
Not all landscaping plants need pruning every year, but it is a good idea to check each landscaping plant to make sure that it is healthy and is not growing out of control.
Read our other posts to learn more about transplanting and maintaining a landscaping plant.
21 Oct 2008
There are many features required to make a front yard landscape both functional and attractive. Some of the main considerations in your front yard landscape planning and design may seem basic, and they are, but they also create the foundation for a front yard landscape that stands out as exemplary.
Primary Front Yard Landscape Features to Consider:
Front Lawn – Think of the front lawn as a canvas to paint on. Although a healthy green lawn may not stand out to the casual onlooker, a brown unhealthy lawn will. Creating a good lawn and keeping it healthy is an ongoing effort, not a one time job.
Trees – Trees are the crowning jewel in any landscape because they are such a long term investment. Because they take so long to mature, trees should be planted as soon as possible unless you can afford to bring in a grown tree. Don’t cheap out on trees either. If you buy a low quality tree or don’t to a proper planting job for your front yard landscape and it dies, everyone will see it and you will have lost the years that you have put into it.
Front Yard Flowers – If planned properly you can have flowers blooming in your front yard landscape from early spring through the fall. It does take some effort of course. Some perennials will come up on their own without a lot of work, but to have color all year long will likely require planting some annuals now and then.
Planting Around Foundations – These plantings are the border between your home and your front yard landscape. They should be designed to create a nice visual transition between the home and the front yard landscape.
Water Features – Fountains, ponds and waterfalls should be planned with care. They can obviously add a lot to a front yard, but they may be safer in the back. Use discretion.
Driveways and Walkways – Although you may not have a lot of control over the location and design of sidewalks or possibly even driveways, there are still a lot of choices of material that can make an important contribution to the overall appearance of your front yard landscape. Different colors of concrete, brick pavers and outdoor tiles are only of few of the possible ways you can customize your front yard landscape.
20 Oct 2008
You generate ideas for landscaping you first need to clearly define what you are trying to accomplish. It’s easier to do this if you lay it out on paper first so that you can visualize what you are trying to do and what the layout will and will not allow.
Once you have it laid out on paper mentally divide the plan into different sections that you can take one at a time and come up with ideas for landscaping solutions for each piece one at a time. This process of breaking it down into small pieces will make the project seem less daunting and will allow your mind to open to new ideas and new possibilities.
Spell out, in words, what you want to have happen in each separate area. If you are trying to create a shade area or a border or come up with ideas for landscaping pathways or anything else, write it out clearly so you can clarify it in your own head.
Brainstorming Ideas for Landscaping
Next, get together with some friends for family and work together to generate ideas for landscaping solutions to your property. By getting together with other people to come up with ideas for landscaping solutions you can stimulate thoughts and impressions that you never would have come up with on your own. Make this a free for all ideas session with no editing and no criticism so that everyone fees free to think and speak without embarrassment. Write down all of the ideas for landscaping solutions that you can come up with.
Once you are done with your brainstorming session, take some time to let the landscaping ideas you have come up with stew in your subconscious mind. Often we come up with our best ideas for landscaping when we are not even thinking about landscaping. The subconscious mind is always at work and has an uncanny way of putting different thoughts together to come up with new solutions. By giving your ideas for landscaping time to percolate you will open up your subconscious to many new alternatives.
Finally, keep a pocket size notebook with you at all times to record your ideas for landscaping projects. You never know when a new idea will hit you and you will most likely forget all about it if you don’t write is down immediately. Don’t be lazy on this one or you will lose some of your best ideas for landscaping projects and solutions.
Check out our other posts to come up with more ideas for landscaping.
16 Oct 2008
Many features are involved in making your front yard landscape not only functional but attractive as well. Included below are the primary features you will want to consider in your front yard landscape design.
For the most attractive and beneficial use of your front yard landscape, you will want to include most of the features outlined below. Essentials, such as a good lawn, thriving shade trees, paths and walks are often taken for granted, yet they are usually the most difficult to acquire, and may end up absorbing a major part of your initial effort, as well as your landscaping budget.
On the other hand, a project such as an outdoor living room, cooking and entertaining facilities, may have been overlooked in the past because it sounded too difficult to accomplish. 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!
Primary Front Yard Landscape Features
Trees – Perhaps if any one landscape feature can be singled out as basic to a successful front yard landscape, 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 a house.
A Good Healthy Lawn – A basic requirement for attractive and enjoyable grounds 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 people 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 landscape. 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.
Foundation Planting – The special planting which is set close to the house is called foundation planting and has great importance since it can improve and enhance the proportions of your house, as well as relate the house to the grounds.
Service Area – You may need a service area near the front of the home. Try to plan the service area out of sight yet close enough to the front so that it is convenient.
Paths and Walks – Planning your driveway and front yard 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.
Check out our other posts for more information on how to design a front yard landscape.
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