Garden Design — Organic Gardening Tips

Outdoor Space Lighting: Tips to Beautify and Properly Illuminate Your Outdoor Space

When it comes to your outdoor space, regardless if it is a small patio, an expansive lawn or a midsize garden, it’s not enough that you just outfit it with furniture, plants, structures and paths. Equally important is to integrate lights to the landscape.

There are some good reasons why you should do such improvement. First, outdoor lighting ensures footing at night by giving you and your visitors the ability to see where you’re headed to–on a winding path, down a flight of stairs, from the gate to the front door–thereby keeping you from physical injury. Second, it gives an added layer of security by deterring trespassers or intruders from breaking into your home. Third, it can make your outdoor space sparkle at night and take on a different aesthetic, making it more inviting to stay in. With all these benefits, it is only fitting to have lights installed in your outdoor space. Below are some useful tips you can follow to successfully add lights to your landscape.

Think variety

To make your outdoor space come alive at night, a combination of two or more types of light should be used. For instance, bright, standard lights can be used to illumine posts around your garden and can also help repel intruders since they emit a strong light. Low-voltage lights, on the other hand, can be used on walkways and the main seating area as they cast a mellow light that is not too glaring for entertaining guests and traversing a path.

Add dynamism

A good lighting design for the outdoor space should be dynamic. And this can be achieved by not lighting all the areas equally. That is, think of the important zones in your garden that you need to see first, then second. Prioritize your lighting levels according to the function of the area. This will not only help make the space appear more lively, it is also a good way to efficiently use lights.

Try colors

When it comes to outdoor lighting that doesn’t mean you have to settle with the conventional fixtures that cast either white or yellow light. To further enhance the night time beauty of your garden, try using colored lights sparingly. For instance, you can use them to emphasize the shape of a shrub, tree or bed of flowers by installing the colored lights at a fence or a wall from close behind the plants. It won’t be difficult to find such fixtures as they are popular these days. Most of them even come in energy-efficient models, allowing you to save on your electricity bills.

Don’t forget safety

Unless you would be using solar powered lights, you’ll need a convenient power supply to hook the lights into. In such case, don’t take the risk of installing special waterproof outdoor sockets on your own. Instead, hire a qualified electrician to do the job for you. You may also ask the electrician to cover power cables with armored ducting to avoid accidents. If a transformer will be used to run low-voltage lights, house it in a waterproof casing or bring it inside the house so as not to expose it to water or moist.

This advice was provided by Robert for www.steelbuildingsuk.co.uk. Robert has been writing good content for those seeking practical tips and advice for gardening, lawn care, and other home improvement-related subjects. Follow Robert and learn more from his works.

Planting Vegetable Gardens In Raised Beds

by Trish

Planting a vegetable garden can be done easily in raised beds, and can greatly reduce the risk of injuring your back while you’re tending the garden. It is also a great way to utilize a small space and maximize the area available to you. It’s wise to first determine if you want a permanent gardening bed or a temporary one, and then you can move on to selecting the materials to make the raised beds. Rot resistant wood, stone, and brick are all suitable materials for building a gardening bed. Growing a vegetable garden in raised beds is a beautiful and convenient way to reap all the benefits of home grown produce.

Permanent Beds

A permanent bed is a good choice for those of us who might want the garden design to remain the same forevermore. It’s the best way to go for individuals who want to build it and then forget about it, with the single exception, of course, for planting. Cedar is a rot resistant wood that would be suitable for a project like this. If you’re leaning away from wood you might want to consider rocks, bricks, or cement blocks. The goal is to create a bed from materials that would provide long lasting support for the garden year after year.

If aesthetics are important, decorative rocks or bricks might be more attractive to look at than plain cinderblocks, but remember that once the garden starts growing your eyes will probably be more focused on the plants than on the materials you used for the garden housing.

Temporary Beds

The benefit to building a temporary bed is that you can adjust the design and layout of your garden each year. Having more than one way to set up a garden might add fun and exciting element to your horticulture endeavors. It would be suitable for individuals who have families with ever changing needs. Space in the backyard might be limited for gardening if you have small children or pets that use the area. As the children grow and their play areas are used less and less, you could move the raised beds to different locations in the backyard.

The materials for a temporary bed may also include rot resistant wood, bricks, rocks, and cinderblocks. The heavier the materials, however, the more cumbersome take down and setup will be. Oftentimes you will have to joist wood like cedar together, so it might be challenging to move framed pieces to another location.

Dimensions of Raised Beds

When you’re thinking about making raised beds to grow a vegetable garden, it’s important to get the proper dimensions so the garden is successful, and so you can maximize the ease of gardening on an elevated surface. Dimensions to keep in mind are adequate depth, width that is reachable, and length that is to your liking. It might be a good idea to make your beds based on the following dimensions:

Create beds at are at least 12 inches deep. To ensure roots penetrate deeply enough into the soil, it’s important to make the beds at least one foot deep.

Beds need to be reachable in width. In order to make the garden accessible for you to work in, you may not want to build the beds more than 3 to 4 feet wide, unless you have long arms and an even longer reach. Keep in mind that you can work on one side, and walk around to the opposite side and work along that side as well. It’s not necessary to reach the entire width from one side of the bed.

The length can be determined by your desires. Depth and width are the two dimensions that really need to be planned carefully. Length can be based on what your area allows and your own personal taste.

What to Plant in Raised Beds

You can enjoy all the variety of produce in a raised garden that a traditional garden might offer. You might want to put gourds in one bed, root vegetables in another, and tomatoes off on their own. Herbs can also be planted in raised beds along with flowering plants, and berries. Each variety of plant needs to be placed in the soil in the appropriate season.

Feed and Water Plants in Raised Beds Regularly

Raised beds have a tendency to dry out faster than regular garden beds, so be vigilant in watering. The soil will not be able to feed the plants in your garden as easily as it could in a traditional garden, so regular fertilization is also a key ingredient in a successful raised garden.

Lawrence Reaves writes for The Growers Exchange, a gardening company offering flowering plants, potted herbs and vegtable plants delivered directly to your home. Check out the products they offer here.

Five Different And Unique Styles Of Garden Design

by Trish

Xeriscape

From the Greek word ‘xeros’ meaning ‘dry’, Xeriscape is a design style where the focus is to eliminate (as much as possible) the need for intervention, using just rainfall to sustain it. Plants are chosen for their ability to withstand dry spells, allowing them and the garden to thrive even during hosepipe bans. Using native plants (wild flowers, grasses, succulents, trees and shrubs) works well as they are already adapted to and flourishing in the natural climate. As well as time-saving, this style is also money-saving as there is no extra expense from additional water, pruning and fertilisers.

Japanese

The Japanese design style recreates miniature landscapes within a garden. Each item is placed carefully in locations likely to attract good fortune. Features are often symbolic; for example, a pond may represent an ocean or a rock may represent a mountain. Many Japanese gardens borrow scenery where the garden will be designed to ‘draw in’ features from the landscape within which it sits. Common features of Japanese gardens include bridges, lanterns, islands, ponds and often a teahouse. Water (represented by white sand in dry gardens) is always featured as it is considered the opposite to stone, creating a ying-yang balance.

French

Formality is the main feature of the French garden. The focal point is the main residence or building, with geometric gardens stretching out from it, to the horizon. Gardens are usually built on level ground and stairways are used to guide visitors around the features. French gardens typically include fountains, geometric ground designs and orangeries. Planting beds are created to complement the main building, are geometric in design and placed symmetrically in the garden. Plants and hedges are manipulated and directed into different shapes, as desired by the gardener.

Tropical

Designed to be fun, vibrant and exotic, these gardens are most suited to hot and humid climates. Although this style can be created in non-tropical climates, intervention including watering, fertilisation and mulching is necessary. Care is needed to ensure the plants survive the winter weather of a non-tropical climate – some may need to be moved to a greenhouse or wrapped up to protect against frost. These gardens are stylised by the use of large leaved plants and trees, with the height of the garden building towards the rear and sunlight falling between the leaves onto the ground.

English Garden

A typical English garden combines the formal and informal style with an emphasis towards bright and fragrant flowers. Roses are the stand out flower creating a relaxing and romantic feel to the garden. Bushes can be left to grow naturally or directed around a trellis or other garden feature. Annual and perennial plants are chosen to give the garden an ever changing appearance. Herbs, fruit and vegetable plants can also be included to provide different scents and supplement the kitchen pantry! Benches, bird baths and other furniture can be used throughout an English garden and brick or stone walls can be used, in place of hedges, to give the garden its defined boundary.

Adrian Harrison wrote this post on behalf of The Lovely Garden. Visit our website for creative ideas on how to improve your garden design in Sussex and Surrey.