How to take basic gardening to the next level
So you've got your geraniums planted all in a row in your front flower bed. The new sod on your lawn has been laid, and the grass looks great. You have a few nice trees, and you have carefully mulched your perennials and your annuals. So how can you take your basic garden and landscaping to the next level?
There are a number of different things that you can do to take your basic yard-nice looking, but a bit ho hum-to a fantastic yard that people slow down to look at as they drive by. The overall idea that you need to follow is that you will be looking at your yard and your garden as a real cohesive work of art. Everything fits together to create a unified effect-you just have to decide what effect that is.
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Top 5 ways to take your gardening to a whole different level
1. Garden for all seasons
Your yard doesn't just disappear during all of fall, winter, and the beginning of spring. Think about your yard during the entire year, and garden your yard all year round. While it's pretty easy to think of different annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees that will look great in your yard during the summer, what about fall? There are all kinds of different plants that you can include in your gardening scheme that will give your yard beautiful color in the fall (think Virginia creeper, dogwood trees, different maples, etc) and in the winter (evergreens, holly, and other berries).
2. Think about hedging your bets
When you look out your window, do you see an entire landscape of beautiful plants-flowers, trees, and grass-that ends with an unsightly stone, chain link, or wood fence? While some of these options are better than others, consider letting your entire yard live, including your boundary markers. Think about using a hedge instead of a fence. Hedges are living fences, and they are beautiful ways to bring even more color and life into your garden. Even better, most hedges will keep their color throughout the entire year. This means that you can have great color in the fall and the winter, as well. Hedges also look classy, and you can trim them down to whatever size you want.
3. Consider your foundations
Foundation plantings are a great way to bring some plant life close to your home. Even though foundation plantings were initially used to hide the high foundations in most homes, there are a number of different reasons to use foundation plantings even if you don't have a huge house foundation that you want to cover up.
a. You can give some variety to your vinyl siding, or your brick wall, or whatever material your house is made of. Uninterrupted material is boring and is dead space.
b. You can soften the lines of your house with different plants and flowers.
c. If you have a smaller yard, then you can use the space to plant shrubs and other favorite plants.
d. If you plant evergreen shrubs along your foundation, you can conserve energy.
4. Choose a great color scheme
Choose a color scheme that reflects your personality. Then use a number of different shades and different plants to reflect those colors. You want your yard to match, right? A yard and a garden are just like a house. You choose a color scheme, have variations upon it, and use different textures and different plants to add interest to your color scheme. This ties your whole yard together and raises your gardening to a whole different level.
5. Use flowering shrubs
Many people plant flowers. But one of the best ways to get color and interest into your yard is to use flowering shrubs. Shrubs, like hibiscus, provide gorgeous color for your yard, while also covering a larger amount of area and coming with their own nice green background for the flowers. Flowering shrubs look fantastic whether they're flowering or not, giving you an added bonus.
