Landscaping Using Rocks

3 Simple Tips To Beautify Your Garden With Rocks


Try the new ideas with rocks.
Please read on...and hopefully this way you will be motivated to get more innovative with ideas.

1. Rocks can make a beautiful Landscape

Many may not understand how rocks can be used for landscaping and may laugh at the idea. But if you really think about the way nature has put rocks around certain areas and how good they look, then you will probably understand that rocks can make a statement in landscaping too. For those who go for their morning walk on the beach, you may have noticed the smooth rocks lying around on the beach that enhance the beauty of the sea side, well these same rocks could be used for landscaping too.

2. Start your landscape with rocks at your front yard

Visualize where to put the rocks in your front yard first. These rocks should be fairly large and placed firmly in the ground so that they cannot be dislodged from the ground easily either by weather conditions or by people.


3. Landscaping the front yard or back yard with rocks

You can arrange these rocks around trees to form a border or on the side of the walkway. So if you have a walkway and some trees in your front yard you can use the rocks the same way too. Front yards may differ from one to the other, but you could create effects with rocks so that they blend into a picturesque landscape.

Rocks can be used in the back yard the same way by making borders with them around trees and bushes and at the side of walkways. Rocks can be placed wherever you want in the garden and create an aesthetic effect in the way they are placed.

In a flower garden where you have flower beds with different varieties of flowers, smaller pebbles can be placed in the flower beds in place of mulch. The areas where you have grown different flowers can be separated with these pebbled. Pebbles also stop the growth of weeds just like mulch. The only problem with pebbles is that they move out of place with rain or when people walk on them, unlike large rocks which are stationery. Pebble rocks could be replaced with flagstones is you find them cumbersome.

To get more innovative ideas on the use of pebbles and rocks you can look for books on gardening which will give you a lot of information.

excerpt from: tokyostringquartet.com

Beautify a Kitchen In Simple Ways

Decorating: Kitchen Updates
Get a Fresh Look : Do a Little Work and Save a Lot From About.com

You don't have to feel stuck with a dingy and drab kitchen that was last decorated in the 70's. No matter what your budget, you can make changes to freshen it up and bring it into the 21st century. The key is the floorplan. If the floorplan is bad, you'll be stuck unless you have a big bank account. If it works, the rest is a breeze.

If you're not sure what to do with the money you have, whether it's a few hundred dollars or several thousand, you might find that hiring a decorator to consult for an hour or two is money well spent. You could probably find someone who would work for $75 to $100 per hour for a consultation. She can help you prioritize your project, select colors for the transformation, and help you focus your work.

So, pull your numbers together and choose your project. Even if you have under $500 to spend, you can still have a fresh-looking new kitchen.

Replace the Cabinet Hardware
Sometimes the simplest changes make the greatest impact. It's like finishing off a wonderful dress with the perfect piece of jewelry. For kitchen cabinets, you can see an amazing change by replacing the old cabinet knobs with new ones. Get rid of dingy, greasy knobs in favor of trendy brushed nickel or antique brass, and voila! fresh new look. Be sure to count carefully before you head out to the store. Prices of cabinet pulls can vary widely, so set your budget, divide the amount by the number of pulls you'll need, and stick to that figure.

Brighten Things Up
You can find a good-looking decorative light fixture at any hardware or home improvement store. Get rid of the ugly recessed fluorescent light in the middle of the ceiling. Be brave and consider a chandelier. Or consider focused track lighting. A new light fixture will brighten up the space and add a decorative element. Get rid of your ugly fluorescent fixture that's hanging in the center of the kitchen ceiling. There are so many fashionable fixtures available from $50 to $200. Choose a fixture that matches the drawer pulls for a coordinated look. And don't just think about a fixture that hugs the ceiling. A chandelier will really dress up the space!

Buy Some Paint
A fresh coat of paint is one of the least expensive ways to transform any space in your home. And the kitchen is no exception.
Start with the ceiling. If the surface overhead is yellowed and greasy, clean it carefully and paint it a bright, clean white. The whole room will light up.

The next easiest project with paint is to change the color of the walls in the kitchen. Choose a color that will blend with the tone of the cabinets and flow into the adjoining rooms. We recommend an oil-based enamel semi-gloss paint for a kitchen, making clean-ups easier and providing a longer life.

If you're feeling particularly ambitious, painting the cabinets would be the most time-consuming, yet still inexpensive, project. Remove the cabinet doors and sand them carefully to remove the finish. Sand the frames and interior of the cabinets. Paint the interiors first, preferably in a fresh white or cream. Then carefully paint the visible frame areas, ending with the cabinet doors. When dry, replace the doors on the frames.

Add Some Work Space
If your kitchen has an open floor, place a small table in the center of the room. This space will provide extra counter area, provide seating, and give you more work space.

Self-Adhesive Flooring
For dingy floors that are smooth, clean, and level, you might consider covering them with a fresh self-adhesive vinyl flooring. This can be purchased in strips or 12" square tiles. Read installation instructions carefully, then place one tile at a time until the room is finished. You can cut the tiles to shape with a scissors or straight blade. What could be easier?

Show Off Your Treasures
If your upper cabinets are have a center panel, remove the solid wood and replace one or two with panels of glass. Install lighting above and show off your collectibles and beautiful crystal or dishes.

Add a Touch of Mother Nature
You'd be amazed by the change you'll see just by adding a bit of green in plants and flowers. Don't clutter the counter, but find space above cabinets or in corners. Your space will look fresh and new.

Landscaping Driveways - Design Considerations

Components of a Beautiful Yard - Driveways

What are some of the components that make a landscape "pop?"
The driveway entrance is the logical area of the yard for us to begin with. Why? Because the entrance to your driveway is also the entrance to your yard, as a whole. How your driveway entrance is landscaped, especially when a property is bordered by a fence or wall (thereby focusing attention on the entrance) sets the tone for the viewer's perception of the whole yard.

Consequently, the landscaping for your driveway shouldn't be a mere afterthought.
Nor should you underestimate the visual impact of the driveway itself. In terms of square feet (relative to the rest of the yard) and visual prominence, a driveway can be a major component of a landscape.

Landscaping Driveways: An Introduction to Design Considerations By David Beaulieu, About.com

Landscaping driveways can consist of both hardscape and softscape. Hardscape options consist mainly of walls and fences, while your softscape options for landscaping driveways include the following:

• Flower beds
• Ground covers
• Ornamental trees
• Shrubs

The possibilities for landscaping driveways are greatly enhanced if you plan on including walls. Walls (for instance, stone walls) can either parallel the driveway along its whole length, or meet it perpendicularly, at the entrance. The latter scenario, in particular, opens up a number of possibilities for landscaping driveways. For example, some people attach driveway gates to the wall, while others span the opening in the wall with an arch.

Meanwhile, variations on the softscape side of landscaping driveways are practically endless. Again, it often comes down to whether the purpose in landscaping your driveway is to create a grand driveway entrance or run the length of the driveway (of course, some people choose both). Accenting the entrance can certainly be cheaper, which is important if your budget is small and your driveway large!

If budget isn't the primary consideration in narrowing down your choices for landscaping a driveway, then what you need to think about is where you want the viewer's gaze to be drawn, and what features of your property you wish to emphasize. This rationale applies equally to hardscape and softscape.

Planting beds of colorful annuals along the sides of your driveway, for instance, will draw the viewer's gaze into your property, to the final destination of your driveway. If that destination is a rather ordinary-looking garage that is in plain view from the street, then you may not wish to draw attention to it. Likewise, if you find your property is already dominated by straight lines (straight house walls, straight driveway, straight decking, etc.), then you may not wish to emphasize the straightness of the driveway by planting its edges with straight flower beds.

By contrast, if your driveway curves around a focal point and gracefully disappears out in back of your house, then flower beds paralleling the driveway will draw the viewer's gaze conveniently to the water feature. Examples of such focal points are the following:

• Water gardens
• Landscape bridges
• Garden arbors
• Wishing wells

From an aesthetic standpoint, there's little reason not to draw the viewer's gaze to the driveway's entrance either with hardscape, softscape or both. However, practical considerations may dissuade you from employing softscape in the way that you'd like to, ideally. Theft and vandalism are two liabilities for landscaping driveways at the entrance, close to the street. Depending on your neighborhood, children passing by may traipse carelessly through a roadside flower bed in which you take a lot of pride, a bed built with your labor and your dollars. Worse yet, shrubs planted too close to the side of the road have been known to disappear overnight, a gaping hole left behind in their absence.

In the North, the challenge presented by the severity of the winters is also a consideration in landscaping driveways at the entrance to a property. Not all shrubs and perennial flowers stand up well to the menace of road salt. Shrubs can also be damaged by plow drivers who stray just a bit either to the left or right when entering your driveway. Consequently, landscaping driveways with plants so as to accent the entrance is best left to annual flowers. Annuals are inexpensive, a fact that offers some solace, should they be damaged or stolen; and they have to be replanted every spring, anyhow, so winter damage is not an issue.

Why Bother Landscaping Driveways?

The entrance to your driveway is also the entrance to your yard, as a whole. How your driveway entrance is landscaped, especially when a property is bordered by a fence or wall (thereby focusing attention on the entrance) sets the tone for the viewer's perception of the whole yard.

Moreover, in terms of square feet (relative to the rest of the yard) and visual prominence, a driveway can be a major component of a yard. Under the right circumstances (see above), that's a good reason for landscaping a driveway along its entire length. Passing up the opportunity to do so relegates the driveway to the status of a long scar running up and down your yard, a scar you're just trying to forget about.

Landscaping driveways with attention and creativity is a cornerstone of successful curb appeal.

English Ivy

Fact about English Ivy Plants By David Beaulieu

English Ivy Plants in History:

In the Christmas carol, "The Holly and The Ivy," we see a symbolism with these two evergreen plants that derives from pagan times. While the druids thought of holly as masculine and suggestive of a male deity, English ivy plants for them represented female divinity.

Uses for English Ivy Plants in Landscape Design:

Their ability to grow in shade has made English ivy plants a traditional groundcover for problematic areas under trees, where most grasses do not grow well. Their vigorous, dense grow habit makes them an effective groundcover where the object is to crowd out weeds. On slopes, they can be used for erosion control. Some take advantage of the climbing ability of these vines to use them to cover a wall, while others grow them in hanging baskets, letting them cascade over the sides.

Characteristics of English Ivy Plants:

English ivy plants can act as groundcovers, spreading horizontally and reaching 8" in height. But they are also climbers, due to their aerial rootlets, which allow them to climb to heights of 50' or more. They will eventually bear insignificant greenish flowers but are grown primarily for their evergreen foliage.

Care for English Ivy Plants:

Trim them in the spring, to keep them manageable and discourage bacterial leaf spot. Spray with insecticidal soap and horticultural oil as necessary to control mites.

Sun and Soil Requirements for English Ivy Plants:

Grow in a well-drained soil in part shade to full shade.

Beautify your garden with morning glory

Excite your morning with Morning Glory

Morning Glory Ground Covers - Excellent Plants For Mediterranean Gardens
by Jonathan Ya'akobi

Morning Glory is commonly associated with rampant climbing plants belonging to the genus Ipomoea. There is however a species known botanically as Convolvulus sabatius, (C. mauritanicus) which while having climbing properties, can be grown as a low-growing ground cover plant. Considering that its water requirements are very modest, and that is so easy to grow, it is an excellent plant for gardens in Mediterranean and other dry climates.

Convolvulus sabatius is a semi-woody perennial that covers about 1 meter (3ft) in each direction, reaches some 30 cm in height (1 ft) with small, oval shaped leaves of a medium green hue. The foliage is not especially attractive, but the lavender-blue, bell shaped flowers create a stunning carpet through much of the summer. A path of flagstones meandering through this pastel sea of lavender is classically Mediterranean in style.

Some gardeners may be put off by the name Convolvulus, associating it with the infamously noxious Bindweed, Convolvulus arvensis. The garden species can be invasive, but this tendency is easily kept in check by hand weeding and occasional monitoring. It can also be a nuisance by climbing its way up nearby herbaceous plants and smothering other ground covers. The answer is to keep a good distance between the Morning Glory and its prospective neighbors!

As mentioned, Convolvulus sabatius is easy to grow. It requires trimming at the end of the winter to prevent it become bald and woody. It prefers less water to more, but does need well-drained soil. Frequent watering tends to produce more vegetative growth, while the occasional soaking seems to induce more flowers. It grows satisfactorily on less than a quarter of the water needed for grass, and even less compared to annual flowers.

The flowers of this Morning Glory reach about 25cm wide (1in) and their bell shape combines beautifully with flowering plants belonging to the Deadly Nightshade family (Solanaceae) such as Solanum rantonetii and Nierembergia, and with other bell-shaped flowers of similar size, like Penstemon. Always bear in mind that flowers possess shape, size and texture as well as color, and that mixing radically different flower shapes together, looks incongruous and out of place. Therefore, Convolvulus sabatius should not be planted next to large, garish, tropical type flowers.