Landscape Gardening
The self satisfaction of landscape gardening is a resulting reward of a gardener's own imagination, planning, and hard work that it takes to create this personal work of art. Gardening is a lot of hard work, but it is enjoyable work... and a labor of love. Each hour of effort you put forth in your garden when landscape gardening will reward you, your family, and your neighbors with many hours of enjoyment.
A year of surveying your situation may seem excessively long for landscape gardening, but taking your time has a built-in advantage: If you move too fast, you could destroy one of your yard's present pluses before you are even aware of it. During the year also compile a list of dislikes about your setting: lack of privacy or outdoor living space, for instance, or too much wind or too little light. Good landscaping can solve most, if not all, of your yard's shortcomings.
To get started gathering ideas, observe the good and bad points of other landscape gardens. You soon will notice details: colors and textures of flowers and foliage, moods of promise and mystery evoked by a winding path or a charming gate, or the way an entrance planting distinguishes one house from the others around it. Move your search for landscaping ideas indoors by browsing through books, magazines, and Internet sites. Skim over the pictures and plans the way a clever clothes maker looks at a pattern book, ruling out the completed look of many outfits as unfit, but choosing a collar here, a sleeve there.
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Landscape Gardening Tip
Pick up a soil pH balance testing kit at your local Home & Garden Showplace to check your garden's topsoil. This will tell you if it needs compost or new topsoil added. If your soil is in need of beefing up, add fertilizer or composte.