Designing A Garden To Die For

For those of you that have a garden has it ever crossed your mind to improve it by adding trees, sculptures, flowers or perhaps a pond. If you do decide to buy some additional features for the garden you will find out that there are tons of choices to the point where you may very well end up doing nothing through not knowing where to start. With literally thousands of options it's no wonder that this happens and you only need to look in any of the many gardening catalogues and magazines to see what I mean. So with this thought in mind I've put together a few tips.

One aspect of landscape design is to have a certain amount of privacy and for many fencing is the usual option but it can pay dividends to add a hedge as a dividing line between your garden and the next door neighbours. There are lots of types of hedges you can go for but the best ones evergreen so they remain full throughout the year. You can also choose varying types in the same category so you end up with different flowers and leaf color changes all year round. This makes it look all the more appealing compared with bog standard fencing.

You could also add various shrubs which are fairly quick to grow which attract lots of birds. It's also a good idea to buy these shrubs from a local resource whether it be a landscaper Hemel or a gardener in Watford as shrubs grown locally will thrive in similar soil and is more adaptable to the wildlife you are likely to get.

I needed some advice on how big certain plants would grow and what kind of special attention would be needed so I looked up a landscaper under landscaper Hemel in a gardening magazine I had and they were very helpful. They recommended a number of plants which would work in my garden after I pointed out that I was after a low maintainence garden. You may have to do the same or look online for information but in any case knowing how big plants will grow and what kind of maintainence is needed will narrow down your search making it easier to choose just the right trees, plants and shrubs.

Whether or not you decide to have a pond is another consideration to make but it is true to say that nowadays it's relatively easy do. Bare in mind though that if you are after a low maintainence garden opting for a pond is not the right way to go as they need to be kept clean as you will get a build up of leaves, algae and other nuisances. It also might prove troublesome with small children around as this could potentially be a danger. Now those are the downsides but they can be quite the feature, especially if you decide to put fish in it. As for installing a pond you can either get a professional landscaper in or do it yourself. You just need enough space to dig a hole big enough and then it's just a matter of buying the plastic container, the pond liner, the pump and some plants to complete the job. Once everything is in place you can add the water and then add in the fish if you like. Depending on how much space you have will govern what size container you use whether it's a barrel, a large tub or some extravegant pre-fabricated mold but no matter what the size they can be a really good feature.

Speaking of maintenance some types of garden alterations will take a lot more work than others so it's really down to you how much work you want to do as far as maintenance goes. for example a nice addition would to add a garden bed of flowers but expect to do a lot more work in maintaining them. This same rule applies to any living vegetation you place in the garden including the amount of grass you have. The lawns will need to be cut and the weeds will need to be taken care of on a fairly regular basis. If you're looking for the easier maintainence option then consider placing lots of mulch in the flowerbeds and around the trees. This will stop the weeds from showing up. You could also greatly reduce the amount of grass you have or get rid of it altogether by adding a pattern of flags down instead.

It's not just about the maintainence issue as it all depends on what type of garden you want at the end of the day so some compromise may be needed between how you want it to look and how much work you want to do.

Although features such as certain types of sculptures or a pond can enhance the look of your garden these are things that won't change all year round where as plants and trees do so it's important to plan out exactly where they are going to go as you can create quite a colourful look all year round just by placing certain plants and trees together with others. For example it wouldn't make sense to have all your trees and plants blossoming at the same time whilst being bare for the rest of the year. With the right planning you can avoid this problem and have your garden blossoming for most of the year.

By taking all these issues into account and picking just what you like you should have no trouble in transforming your garden into something that you can enjoy year in year out.

Gardener's Tips On Teaching - Teaching Kids How To Make Compost

If you are a keen gardener it's very enjoyable to see your children having fun with gardening too and teaching them about compost can certainly be a fun thing to do but before you start you have to realize that teaching adult and teaching kinds are two ends of the scale and require very different techniques to really work. For one thing kids have short attention spans so you have to bare this in mind.

It's definitely a good thing for kids to learn about the environment and how we should take care of it more because they are our future and if they are taught properly the advantages or organic over synthetic copies of products this can only help to bring about a brighter future. It also helps to make adults more aware themselves when their own children hold an interest in it.

If you intend to teach to a wider audience of kids perhaps in your local area you are going to need to set up the room where you intend to hold the lesson. If you are short of visual aids you can look in your local area for a gardening company that might be willing to lend you some material. I personally went online and just looked up gardener St Albans for a local gardening company in my area and I paid to have some fencing put up. As I was now a good customer I took the liberty of asking them if they had any material I could use for my lesson and so happens that they did. I got a 15 minute video short which explained the benefits of using compost which I then used in the talk. You could actually do the same thing by looking up landscaper Hemel or some other location as landscapers often have the full wares to so most garden work.

I was lucky in that instance but you don't have to go to those lengths if you don't plan to use a gardening company any time soon but that isn't a problem because you can find everything you need online with images and video sites galore.

Visual aids are a must when you're teaching kids because you need to keep their attention and pictures certainly help. If you have a few pictures you can create a powerpoint slide presentation which they should enjoy and it will help them to see what you are talking about.

Having said that, nothing works better than a full blown demonstration which kids love because they get to be involved in the process and it makes the lesson a really fun activity. Children are always very keen on asking questions which is good because you can answer them as you continue with the demonstration and in some cases show them the answer visually. When kids are also having fun they are more apt to ask related questions and get really involved which is all good for the learning process.

Don't forget though that you are teaching a type of gardening to children and as such you have to work extra hard to keep their attention. It's a good idea to have someone helping you maintain order in the classroom when you are not used to teaching children as there is an art to it that comes mainly with practice which is what I found out.

Depending on the age group you are teaching you will have to change your presentation accordingly. For very young children you must make it simple and relate what you are saying to things they will understand. You can go a little more in depth if they are older but with all age groups it is a great idea to drum into them the benefits of composting right at the start of the lesson and explain to them what exciting things will be happening. This will peak their interest and from there on in it should be child's play.