Small Garden Design

Formal gardens appeal to those who delight in crisp, neat edges, straight lines and a sense of order. Many traditional suburban gardens are formal in outline, with rectangular lawns flanked by straight flower borders, and perhaps rectangular or circular flower beds cut into them.

A small garden lends itself to being paved throughout. By growing most plants in raised beds or in containers, less bending is involved and many of the smaller plants are more easily appreciated. Climbers can be used to make the most of vertical space.



Some successful gardens are worked out on the ground, in the mind's eye, perhaps visualized during a walk around the garden, or conceived in stages as construction takes place. Attractive small gardens seldom just happen, they are designed. Despite the apparent contradiction, the smaller the garden, the more important good design becomes.



A small garden can be taken in almost at a glance, and the difference between good and bad design, attention to detail or neglect, is immediately obvious. Small gardens can still have a big impact. Size is comparative. There are as many garden styles as there are tastes, and the only criterion for success is whether the result pleases you personally. To add styles and suitable designs to your home garden, buy mailboxes that can match your home garden.



Overall garden design is important, but it is individual features that make a garden special. Major structural decisions such as the type of paving to use, the shape of the lawn, and the types of mailboxes and address plaques you use! Mail Slots, Wall Mount Mailboxes and many more types of residential mailboxes and commercial mailboxes can be found at Mailboxixchange. Mailboxixchange is a distributor of high quality residential mailboxes and commercial mailboxes. You will find curbside decor in addition to the range of residential and commercial mailboxes which they offer at their site. Buy your residential mailboxes together with their beautiful ornaments and address plaques at their site. Add beauty to your gardens. In addition, you can sign up their affiliate program which will pay you $20 instantly.

Regent's Park

Regent's Park became enclosed as a park in 1812. John Nash designed the scheme and originally envisaged a kind of garden suburb, dotted with 56 villas in a variety of Classical styles, with a pleasure palace for the Prince Regent. In the event only eight villas -- but no palace -- were built inside the park (three survive round the edge of the Inner Circle).



In 1811, the Prince Regent, intent upon making London a place of style, commissioned the architect John Nash to plan a grand neoclassical scheme that pivoted upon Piccadilly Circus. A sweeping processional route was built to connect Westminster and St Jame's Park with an encircled space to the north that was to become the Regent's Park. Nash intended to develop this land as an upmarket housing estate with crescents and circuses providing elegant villas for the rich. But money and time ran out and fortunately this part of the concept was only partly fulfilled.

Instead we have a splendid park, planned as a circle within a circle and wrapped around from east to west by superb stucco terraces of large houses, with smaller intimate hamlets such as Park Village East and West. The northern perimeter, bounded by the Regent's Canal, connects the open parkland with the slopes of Primrose Hill. From here it once looked outwards to the rustic charms of the hill villages of Hampstead and Highgate.



The inner circle is now Queen Mary's Garden, with wide herbaceous beds, a sunken garden, a romantic lake with waterfall and rocks, as well as an open-air theatre for summer Shakespeare and a popular boating lake. Most of all, this site is justifiably admired for Queen Mary's Rose Garden, where a comprehensive collection of roses is encircled by tall posts supporting swagged ropes festooned with ramblers and climbers.

Climbers and Wall Shrubs

Clematis is a treasure among climbers, with its glorious blooms, wonderful range of colours and long flowering period.


Wisteria

Climbers are long-lived plants, with a lot of growing to do, so it pays to give them a good start. First of all, you must choose a healthy plant. Sturdy stems are a good sign but most important of all are the roots. Tip the post and check the drainage holes. Reject any with a mass of roots, but those with just a few roots emerging are at exactly the right stage for planting.


Climbing plants are invaluable for giving the garden a well-furnished, finished look. They can hide an ugly wall, a dilapidated shed beautifully!

Some climbers, such as ivy and Hydrangea petiolaris are self-supporting, attaching themselves by little aerial roots, and need no help to scale a wall. Most Virginia creepers have special sucker pads on their tendrils. But the twiners(honeysuckle, clementis, wisteria, and the like) must have something to hang on to.


Picture of Hydrangea petiolaris

Caring of Climbers
Watering: Climbers on walls or near trees need extra water in warm, dry weather, even when they are well established.

Feeding: A spring feeding of rose fertilizer gives all climbers and wall shrubs an annual boost. At the same time, mulch with a layer of well-rotted manure or compost to improve the soil, lock in moisture, and keep the weeds down.

Pruning: To keep plants within bounds, and to create a good shape, some pruning is inevitable. LIght pruning can be done at any time during the growing season, to any climber or wall shrub, but pruning differ from plants to plants.


Picture of honeysuckle

Orchids Bathroom

The name "orchid" comes from the Greek root orkhis, meaning "testicle". Orchids are one of the largest groups of flowering plants, consisting of some 25,000 to 30,000 species. Phalaenopsis are among the easiest and most rewarding orchids to grow.



In nature, orchids grow on trees, on rocks, but most of the popular varieties do not grow in dirt or soil of any kind - so, in pots we use mixes of bark, volcanic rock, small amounts of peat moss, sometimes coconut fiber - all substances that allow plenty of air to get to the roots yet hold some water. Soil will suffocate the roots, killing the plant.



Orchids are relatively easy to grow. They need the basics -- water, light, air and fertilizer. You can have beautiful orchid plants that last for years. Orchid flowers vary according to the variety and hybrid but they can bloom from once to 2-4 times a year. The blossoms can last for weeks to months. The ideal place to grow orchids is the green house, but bathrooms, kitchens, pool or spa areas, and washrooms are all acceptable locations. Use unbreakable containers such as plastic or stainless steel pots.



Orchids will benefit from the extra humidity of the bathroom. A bathroom with plenty of light would be the perfect environment for an orchid. (Taps4Less.com is an online bathroom shop that can offer you a range of taps, showers, electric showers, bathroom accessories, bathroom suites, bathroom furniture, bathroom cabinets, baths, bath tubs, shower enclosures, shower valve etc.. )

Pictures of Geraniums

Geraniums are just about the easiest of all plants to grow as long as you give them a sunny location in well-drained soil. Officially, they should be called pelargoniums, to distinguish them from the true geraniums, which are hardy outdoor perennials. They were classified as pelargoniums 2000 years ago, but it is taking us a while to get used to the idea.



There is a tremendous choice of more than 1000 varieties of geraniums, in upright and trailing forms. Flower colours range from deep red to pure white, and some cultivars even have variegated leaves. There is also a range of flower-head shapes -- from big, globelike pompons to more open clusters.


The most free flowering are the seed-raised 'Multibloom' varieties, closely followed by the zonal types(those with rounded leaves that open bear a maroon horseshoe marking).



Ivy-leaved trailing geraniums, which look so good in large pots and window boxes, are also very reliable. Martha Washington geraniums(with serrated edges to the leaves) have the showiest flowers, but a much shorter flowering period.