I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a Tree...

I have always loved trees.  If there is a soul to a garden, surely it lies within the trees. Trees not only define your landscape but they also beckon wildlife to come enjoy the beautiful gardens that you have created. Trees provide shade to your gardens as well as to your home so their selection and placement should be given the utmost consideration.

Unfortunately, many home landscapers aren't patient enough to do their homework before they buy and plant. Several years down the road they begin to experience buyer's remorse when they realize the trees they planted have undesirable elements such as seed pods or obtrusive roots or leaves that are large and cumbersome to clean up in the Fall.  The most common problem is that they fail to visualize the tree as full grown before they planted and now the tree has grown too large for the space.  Trees are difficult and expensive to remove, so doesn't it make sense to do a little research before you buy?

Planting trees is a step toward creating your Master Plan as discussed in previous posts. Don't underestimate the importance of your Master Plan. If you haven't drawn your design yet, visit this link for more information and perhaps inspiration.            Designing Your Master Plan.

We have planted thirty-three trees in This Grandmother's Garden. That's a lot of holes to dig!  My husband and sons are the expert hole diggers, and yes, there are things you need to know before you plant your trees. Here is a great resource to learn from: Ten Rules for Tree Planting.

We chose to plant most of our trees before we planted any other plants. I simply wanted to give them a head start on everything else, a chance to sink their roots deep and feel at home in my gardens and to begin to grow... quickly, which they have!  Of course there is a secret for making trees grow quickly that I just may share in a later post.  So come visit again!

Sprinkling Systems Made Easy

This Grandmother's Garden has a sprinkling system that is amazing! It was designed by my Honey-do and was installed by my sons.  It includes a drip system that waters every tree and bush which means its pretty much a weed free zone.  The Perennial Garden has micro-sprays that keep my blooms happy, the lawn has rotor heads that do their job magnificently with no dry spots and the vegetable and berry gardens have these nifty little tubes that are perforated with holes to allow just the right amount of water to nurture these plants. My favorite feature is the drip system on my Rose Garden. A little drip at the base of the plant insures that they each receive an adequate water supply without splashing water on the leaves which can cause mildew to form.  The roses are happy and I'm happy. As amazing as this sounds, you, too can design and install your own Sprinkling System.

Did you ever play with Tinker Toys as a child? 

If you did then you are a great candidate to install your own Sprinkler System- it looks more complicated than it really is. Go ahead and get a professional bid if you'd like- the price is likely to be quite high. 

Doing it yourself has two compelling advantages:

• you save money on the installation costs which can be as much as 1-1/2 – 2 times the cost of the parts themselves

• you will be the expert on your system—enabling you to adjust the system as needed without calling your installer.

A word on Big box stores: 

I would not recommend purchasing your sprinkling system parts here. Instead, spend some time at your local plumbing store. They are very knowledgeable, very helpful, and will likely design your sprinkling system for you if you will bring in the layout of your property.

There are some great resources available on the Internet. This is one of my favorites:

Sprinkling Systems

CAUTION: This Step will take F.O.R.E.V.E.R... but is so worth the effort!

The first step of the construction phase in your landscaping project is to prepare your soil. This step will take the most time to accomplish whether you are landscaping an entire yard or simply preparing  a flower bed. If you spend sufficient time preparing the foundation from which all else will come forth, it will save you tons of effort later on. 

Here is what our experience tells us is important:

• Eliminate the weeds before you begin.  If you have noxious weeds like morning glory on your property, treat them with the herbicide Roundup. You may want to make several applications. This particular weed is a perennial and will continue to haunt you if you let it, so do your best to eliminate it before you plant.  
• Remove all the rocks. This step was our biggest challenge in "This Grandmother's Garden." Our property sits on an ancient river bed and we literally raked tons of rocks from our ground.  Most of them we hid under our berms, visualize two huge piles of rocks, but we kept many of them to line my perennial garden as a reminder of where this landscape began.
• Amend your soil as needed. Our ground was mostly clay so this step was very important. Flower beds will benefit from a deep rich loamy soil, while areas where you will plant lawn won't require the same depth. Why bring in dump truck loads of soil for a lawn surface when the roots will only grow down about six inches.
• Form your berms and flower beds and level the areas where lawn will be planted. CAUTION: This step takes  F.O.R.E.V.E.R...  My husband is the expert here. He has taught me (and I'm now a believer) that how the lawn surface looks before seeding, or sodding for that matter, is how it will stay. If there are dips and indents and places that are not level, they will remain so after the lawn grows. So, if you enjoy a beautiful lawn with all the humps and bumps in the right places, where your design dictates they should be, follow this step with the greatest of care... and patience... the result will be so worth it!

With your lawn area graded to just how you want your lawn to appear, and your flower beds well defined, you are now ready for the next step on your way to growing your own beautiful gardens. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post!
This series of posts relate to developing your Master Plan as outlined in previous posts. It is meant to be only a summary of methods we have gleaned from our own experience.  There are many expert resources available to guide you in your efforts. 
Check these out: Soil Preparation for a Beautiful Lawn
Soil Preparation for Flower Beds

This is What Makes Our Gardens Beautiful...

"Your gardens are beautiful!  Did you design them yourself?"  I love to answer this question with a resounding "Yes! We did!" With a love for all things growing and the patience to begin with a plan, as  presented in previous posts, we designed our gardens, we performed all of the labor to plant our gardens and are now enjoying the experience of nurturing our gardens.  "Why would you ever do this yourself?  Why not pay a professional and be done?" 

Our first landscaping experience we completed ourselves out of necessity.  It was our first home to landscape and there was not a lot of money to spare.  We could have so much more at a fraction of the cost if we did the work ourselves.  And so we labored and learned all the how to's: how to grow plants, how to water them, how to plant trees, how to weed, ya-da, ya-da.  I'll admit that most of our learning came from the "school of hard knocks", but isn't that what life is all about?  

Somewhere in the midst of our labor, something magical happened, we discovered that we were growing more than just trees and flowers in our gardens, we were actually nurturing children and experiencing all the joy that comes from working together with them, side by side. Together as a family we were creating something beautiful and enduring, something hard earned and gratifying. Our experience has taught us there is far more value in the journey than in the completed project.  In fact, the completed project holds more value because of the journey. 

When we walk through our gardens, we receive all the sensual feelings that nature has to offer in such a beautiful setting:  the sweet sound of the birds singing, the beautiful mix of colors and textures, the sight of an occasional butterfly gracing our garden... but the overriding feelings are those from the memories we have of working side by side with our children, the sweet exchange of thoughts while digging holes for bushes and trees, early morning weeding during the magic hour, using skills beyond our own to lay sandstone for the paths and patio, planting tender flower starts with grandchildren.  Our landscape is a kaleidoscope of all of these memories that fill our hearts with joy. This is what makes our gardens beautiful.  Think about it... if we had simply paid someone to do the landscaping for us, what opportunity would have been lost!

Steps to follow...

With your Master Plan in hand, as explained in previous posts, you're ready to enter the construction phase. Our limited experience has taught us that there is an order of importance that should be followed to gain optimum results.  Today's post will outline our steps for creating a beautiful landscape  and in subsequent posts, each step will be further defined.  

Keep in mind that we are not landscape experts who come in and complete the job in a few days. Experts would tell you to install all the hardscape first, the rock walls, the water features, the patio, the walkways. Our family's order of doing was driven by our budget and our time and yet we longed to have something green growing in our yard as soon as possible.  The temptation is to simply lay sod and plant a few trees and flowers.  DON"T DO IT!  With a little patience and a plan, you can do so much more and enjoy the journey as you go. (More about enjoying the journey in tomorrow's post.) 

Here are the steps we followed:

1. Preparation of Soil
2. Installation of Sprinkler System
3. Plant Trees
4. Lawn: Sod or Seed?
5. Plant Bushes
6. Vegetable Garden
7. Berries, Berries and More Berries
8. Water Feature
9. Build a Patio

You Can't Build the Dream If You Can't See the Dream

Developing a  Master Plan is always the first step toward achieving your dream of a beautiful landscape. After you have explored all the possibilities by gathering ideas from the resources presented in the previous post, organizing your desires  and sketching those ideas on paper will allow you to actually achieve your dream. 

This Grandmother's Garden was first conceived in 2003. We spent many weeks gathering  ideas and researching the elements that we wanted to include in our landscape. Our plan took six years for us to complete. Remember,  this was a Family project  with a limited budget. Because we had a master plan, we were able to tackle the huge task of landscaping a half acre as we were financially and physically able. Having a plan to follow gave us hope that someday we would finally make it past the construction phase and into the maintenance phase. In the Summer of 2009 we finished the last element of our landscape. Yes!  We are done! It's so rewarding to look back and see what we have accomplished during the last six years one step at a time. Developing a Master Plan is essential to your success.  You can't build the dream if you can't see the dream.  Draw a simple sketch of what you want your landscape to look like before you do anything else.

Tomorrow we will outline the steps we followed to make our Master Plan come to life.  Stay tuned!

A Beautiful Garden Begins With A Master Plan

Every beautiful garden begins with a Master Plan, whether you are renovating a tired old garden or starting anew from a field of rocks and weeds as we did with "This Grandmother's Garden". Designing your garden first gives you opportunity to think about what elements to include in your landscape and provides a visual picture of what it will look like when you are done.

• Will my landscape include a perennial garden? 
• Is a vegetable garden a must have?
• Do strawberries, raspberries and fruit trees have a place in my garden? 
• Do I want water features in my garden?

Without a Master Plan, you may find your landscape filled with plants and trees that don't especially work together to enhance and beautify your yard.  Creating a Master Plan allows you to add elements as you can afford them and to avoid the frustration of not being able to do it all at once. You need not be a landscape designer to accomplish this, but you do need to know what plants and trees grow well in your region. 

There are many resources to help with your choices.  One of my favorites is the Sunset Western Garden Handbook, this is my Bible of the plant kingdom. Another excellent resource is found in your State Extension Service.  Here's a link to my state's extension service: Utah State Extension Service Yard and Garden Info Every state has a similar website. Search for  (Your State)State Extension Service. This website offers month specific tips to keep your yard and garden beautiful.  Also gives great information regarding which plants and trees grow well in your area.  

Another resource is to visit your local nursery, to browse the many possibilities of plants and trees available. Don't be tempted to purchase anything! Your visit is only to discover  what you like and may wish to include in your plan.

Once you've armed yourself with a little knowledge from these resources you're ready to design your Master Plan, to actually sketch a picture of what your landscape will look like. Stay tuned for my next post which will take this idea a step further.

SPRING?

Just a skiff of snow today, thinking it will be gone in a few hours. Good day to finish up the cleanup... and trim those red twigs.  Funny how one season has such a hard time leaving, Old Man Winter wants to linger but Spring is intent on showing her sunny face.  So they go back and forth for awhile until Spring finally wins. Give it up Winter! The Tulips are waiting to bloom!

Spring Clean-Up is a Breeze!

A beautiful day today and a walk around the yard revealed that some of my tulips are peeking up from the ground a couple of inches. I have an unwritten rule that Spring cleanup has to be done before the tulips arrive. They wait all year to bloom and deserve to show their splendor in a tidy garden. So my honey and I escaped from the world to spend some time in the garden. "One hour" he said. I smiled. He doesn't share the same passion that I do for gardening, but is a good sport about it and does all the hard stuff for me. Two and a half hours later we declared we were done for the day. We did a great job last Fall with cleanup so there wasn't a lot of debris. We did some weed control, raked the leaves from under the red twig dogwoods and cut back the stems from the fall perennials on the south side of the house. Need to cut back those red twigs soon. I like to wait to prune until the hard frost is over but before new growth begins. Today would have been a good day, but I knew I was pushing the limits with my willing helper, so we called it quits. We have another couple of hours of work to do on the north side for the cleanup to be done. Oh and the red twig pruning, there are about 16 of them on our property. Hm-m-m... this may take a bit longer. Better let our old bones rest a day or so before we're at it again. Can't say enough about the benefits of a good Fall cleanup, it makes Spring cleanup a breeze!

Try this Natural Weed Killer... it really works!

Here's a simple and natural weedkiller that you can make in your kitchen. I've used this a time or two and it really works! It's works best on broadleaf weeds and grass. Be sure to spray in full sun as it works by removing the moisture from the plant.

Mix a gallon of vinegar with 1 tablespoon of liquid dish detergent. The soap works to break down the waxy surface on the leaves, allowing the vinegar to remove the moisture. It also helps the solution to stick to the leaves, giving the vinegar time to kill the weed. Fill a spray bottle with the solution and spray the weeds thoroughly. The solution will kill any plant it comes in contact with so be careful not to over-spray neighboring plants. Small weeds will shrivel and die within 24 hours. This method doesn't work as well on deep rooted weeds, but is a great solution for the tender weeds that sprout in the Spring. A great alternative for those that don't like to use chemicals. Keep a spray bottle handy to take on those early morning walks around your yard.

Secret #1 of My Beautiful Yard

Mother Nature has a way of teasing us at the change of each season. Beautiful days of sunshine, temps in the 60's only to be followed by a burst of cold and snow. This is the pattern until Spring finally arrives in full splendor. It's the perfect time to prepare the flower beds for summer. First, eliminate those pesky weeds, not too hard if you were diligent with your "Fall Clean-up", but that's a blog for another day. Today it's all about Spring!

Secret #1 of a beautiful yard: STAY AHEAD OF THE WEEDS. Amazing how fast they grow even when it's cold... hence the phrase... they're growing like weeds. (So many similarities between raising kids and growing gardens, we'll explore that topic later as well.)  Read on for my rules for weed control...

Sh-h... my garden is sleeping

As the sun begins to shine long enough to warm the earth below,

the buds on my trees and bushes will soon begin to pop

and then their leaves will make their grand appearance.

Seeds now buried beneath the snow and soil will begin to sprout

and little by little push their way upward

toward the warmth of the sun...

and then my garden will begin to awake.

It will be as though Mother Nature has cast her magic wand

across the earth

and the glorious dance will then begin.

I'm so-o-o ready for Spring...

Music: "Hymn of Spring"
used with permission
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