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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.






Raccoons in love?

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Wordless Wednesday

Aw, don’t they make a cute couple?

raccoons in love

I don’t know if this is just a hug, play or something else (maybe peekaboo since one has it’s paws over the others eyes?).

I certainly hope that they aren’t getting ready to make more raccoon babies!

Now that the weather has warmed up here in Toronto (the snows actually melting and it’s been raining a LOT) we’ve been seeing raccoons almost daily! One seems to like our driveway. I guess I’ll have to walk the dog in the driveway a few times during the day to get her scent there in the hopes that it will scare the raccoon away.

If it’s warmer in your area, have you been seeing more wildlife lately?

Visitors to the garden

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We had some unexpected guests in our garden earlier this week. I believe it was on Sunday morning or possibly Monday.

My husband and I were in the kitchen when he turned and said “Look, Look a Blue Jay!” and just outside the window in a window planter a lovely male Blue Jay was examining the remnants of the flower box. There’s still some snap dragons and annual geraniums in the box … dead of course because of the cold, but I expect the Jay was after the seed heads that were still on the plants.

We watched the Blue Jay fly around our yard for a short while before it disappeared. It visited a few different plants and then sat at the bird feeder in the center of the yard.

After the Blue Jay disappeared we were about to leave the kitchen … discussing how we’d better fill our Suet containers later that day … and then I saw a light colored bird with reddish tones to it’s feathers enter the yard and sit in the Rose of Sharon tree. I believe it was a female Cardinal.

The Cardinal was quite happy to sit in the Rose of Sharon and on the fence nearby for a little while before it too disappeared.

To the best of my knowledge Cardinals and Blue Jays don’t get along all that well … well …. I don’t think Blue Jays like many other birds in their immediate territory.

I hope they both come back though. We filled a few suet baskets and topped up the seeds in two of our bird feeders.

I know that there’s been a blue jay around for a few years. I don’t see it often, but I hear it calling out as it flies around the immediate neighborhood. I’ve also see the male cardinal around a few times over the last few years as well.

We have a number of birds that frequent our yard, but most are quite common birds. I suppose Jays and Cardinals are common enough too but we don’t see them often so they are special visitors to our garden.

I suppose I’ll take the birds visits as a compliment to my garden. It’s maturing and I’ve been careful to grow plants that a number of birds and butterflies enjoy. It seems to be paying off because each year there is more and more wildlife in my garden.

I’ll keep an eye out for my little visitors and try to get some photos.

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