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Mistakes You Should Avoid While Practicing Landscaping In Your Backyard

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With the onset of spring or summer, most of the people pull out their gardening kit and start sprucing up their backyards. Landscaping the yard becomes essential not just to make the house look more beautiful but also because most of the family functions are held in that particular area of the house. A well built and maintained landscape can be a considerable source of satisfaction and enjoyment. Maintaining a landscape is easier said than done. Landscaping efforts will only be fruitful if they are done in a proper manner.

Prime and most perfect time for landscaping is the fall and winter season. During this time of the year, you can consider taking up all the landscape renovation or build up plans. To enhance your knowledge on what is good and what would look the best, you can consider watching some gardening programs on the television or go visit some home and garden show. But all these learning and know-how has little relevance when spring fever hits in. The inspiration to get on to those beautiful looking backyards, leads the person to take some hasty decisions, which messes with the whole landscaping efforts. Don’t fall prey to such mistakes even unknowingly. Below are some the most common landscape mistakes that gardeners usually make. Read it and avoid it!

Using excessive lawn ornamentation

In the context of landscaping, the concept of more the merrier just do not apply. Many people generally commit the mistake of installing too many decorative pieces in their backyards which instead of adding to the beauty, mars it. So, before buying any decorative item your lawn, first try and figure out how you will position it and if it is necessary. At times it is better to have just one small whimsical statue than having ten. Think, consider and re-consider before you decide to include some of the statues in your backyard.

Planting trees just too deep

Many people are of the impression that adding more soil in and around the tree is just like giving it more support. But is this true? No! More soil only chokes the tree and just does not produce the required results. Hence to avoid such issues, ensure that you test the main stem and the tentacles before planting it on the ground. Best and easiest way to solve this issue would be to dig out a hole up to the height of the bag of the tree.

Many people think that by cutting their grass short, they will need to mow it less. But this myth again is far from the reality. If the grass is cut just too short then you are doing nothing but inviting the insects. One of the best ideas would be to cut the trees into varied lengths on different seasons. During winters, you can consider cutting it too short so that the sunlight well penetrates into the soil. In summers, you can leave the blades standing up tall as this would act as a shelter to the soil.

Fertilizing properly is essential

Over fertilizing or no fertilizing at all, both are bad for your landscape. Consider visiting your garden centre and drawing some tips on what are the best fertilizers for your yard. This would not only ensure a healthy growth of your plants but will also give your yard that amazing look which you always craved for.

Today’s article is contributed by Chase Cullen. He is a writer who has written articles for many popular magazines and newspaper. He is also working on a novel. His hobbies include gardening and painting. He says for lush, green landscaping and lawn, people have to put in time and effort in its upkeep.






Making Your Garden An Inviting Habitat For Birds

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Birds are amazing creatures and they are simply entertaining to watch and listen to. No wonder, a lot of people are encouraged to keep birds in cages so they can watch these beautiful flying creatures closely. However, you can still enjoy birds and their songs without locking them up in a cage. If you have a garden, you can recreate this space into a welcoming oasis where birds can fuel up and take refuge. Below are some useful tips to get you started.

Know the birds and their needs

The first step that you have to take is to know what types of birds frequent in your area. Find out about the plants that have the food they need. The more you know about them, the easier for you to give them what they need. At the most, birds require accessible food sources, water and places to make their nests. They do not like places where predators are lurking. So be sure to keep these things in mind when you tend to your garden.

Think variety

Just like people, different birds have different food preferences. Some birds eat seeds, some love fruits, while others feast on insects or nectar. Hence, if you want to attract a wide array of birds into your garden, consider growing a number of plant varieties–combine flowers, ground covers, fruit-bearing trees and shrubs. The greater the mix of vegetation you can give, the greater variety of birds will be enticed to hang out in your garden.

Layer the look

Birds love to congregate in environments with multi-tiered and densely packed arrangements of plants. So when planting, aim for a tiered effect. For instance, you can put larger trees at the borders, followed by lower trees, fruiting shrubs, and clumps of bushes and vines, then tall grasses, blooms and ground covers. This is a pleasing composition that mimics nature and will supply sustenance, refuge and protection to different kinds of birds year in and year out.

Keep bird feeders year-round

All too often, homeowners bring out their bird feeders during cold months when birds spend nearly all their time and energy seeking for food. This should not be the case in your garden, though. Keep feeders filled for spring and summer, too, so that you will get patrons year-round. As an added bonus, you’ll get to enjoy the colorful plumage of birds while you sit back and relax in your garden.

Quench their thirst

Birds get thirsty, too. So aside from the plants, provide them a source of water as well. You can use birdbaths around your landscape to give your flying visitors splashy spots where they can drink and bathe. Just make sure that each basin is just two inches deep so that birds can easily drink and they should also have a rough surface for better grip.

To protect the birds from lurking predators while they drink and bathe, position the birdbaths a few feet from shrubs or trees so that the immediate perimeter is open, but close enough to sheltered areas where they can easily getaway. Likewise, always keep the birdbaths clean and add fresh water daily. You can also outfit them with birdbath heaters so that they would still be accessible to birds during winter. To further invite birds, you may also use bubblers and misters along with birdbaths.

Hang houses

Nesting pairs will find refuge in your garden if you include birdhouses in the landscape. The placement and the size of holes of the birdhouses will depend on the type of species you are trying to invite. For instance, wrens love to nest in areas surrounded by trees, but other birds like purple martins prefer raising their broods in big, open areas.

To prevent territorial disputes, build the birdhouses away from feeding stations and each box should have a space of a minimum of 25 feet in between. Also, choose sturdy materials when building and securing the boxes in place. It is recommended to stay away from using nesting boxes with perches as they are a magnet for pest birds.

This guest post was written by Ericka for Lothian Skip Hire, a premier skip hire in Falkirk. Ericka has been writing articles about a wide variety of topics for some years now. However, she is particularly interested in providing helpful posts about gardening, outdoor living and home improvement.

5 Changes That Will Help Your Garden Look Like A Forest

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Most people only own a small patch of land and they should treat it as their castle. It’s the only place in the world where you can do almost anything you want because you think it will look nice. When you come home from a hard day at the office you want to appreciate what you have. Not have to keep looking at it and wishing things were different. Luckily it’s not too hard to make something look beautiful without spending all your money, especially if you don’t go crazy.

One place people seem to forget about is the garden. Everyone can walk through the forest and appreciate it because it all looks so tranquil. Why don’t you turn your garden into something that resembles a forest? Somewhere you will feel at one with nature when you step outside to sit in the sun. You won’t find swimming pools and climbing frames in the middle of the forest, but you will find other things so let’s take a look at what you’ll need.

Plant some trees

If you want your garden to look anything like a forest then you won’t get very far without trees. Unless you have a few years to sit around waiting you will need to buy ones that are already quite large. You’re not going to get full-size trees carried into your garden, but you can get some large enough that they actually look like something you might find in a forest. They’ll look much better in autumn when the leaves have fallen onto the ground and everything looks yellow-brown.

Make a little pond

When you’re walking through the forest it’s always nice to find a little lake or a river with some nice fresh water. You obviously won’t be able to create something on such a grand scale in the garden, but you can build a little pond and it will still attract wildlife. If you have children you should think carefully about where you’re going to put it. Don’t have it out of site so you can’t see it from your window, just in case an accident was to happen.

Hide the garden fence

Unless you go for walks in a different forest from me, you don’t see any fences laying around. It looks better and more real when you can’t see them, especially if they aren’t even wooden ones. They probably run all the way around your garden, so how will you get rid of them? You need to use plants and place them either directly in front of the fence, or use a species that will grow into the fence. This means they are completely out of view from the inside and you will forget you even have one.

Get rid of the grass

You do see grass in the forest, but it doesn’t exactly look like proper forest flooring. Something that will look great and give you the feeling of a forest is bark chipping. Just rip up your grass and buy enough bags of bark chipping from the garden center. Once they are lying down on the ground it will give the place a completely different look. If you don’t want to get rid of all your grass you could keep a patch that’s closer to the house. You don’t have to get rid of everything to make your garden look like a forest.

Attract the wildlife

You really need wildlife if your garden. The easiest way to do it is by leaving nuts and seeds out for them to eat. If they have a lovely person providing them with food and making their life easier you can be guaranteed they will stick around. Throw some nuts and seeds around the ground and also have some food plates that hang from the trees. Try to use wooden ones so it still feels like a forest.

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Steven White is a Nature lover and he tries to spread awareness among people to embrace nature through his blogs. He is also an active member of the nashville painters group.

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