Drummondville's Front Yard Vegetable Garden. We were a bit overweight and wanted to get in shape Michel was starting to have health problems. We decided to go on a diet to lose weight the idea was to eat a lot more vegetables and completely change the way we ate. That's where the idea of the garden came from. We had to figure out where to put it since the backyard wasn't very sunny. Michel came to me and said look, we don't have any sun in the back what if we planted a few tomatoes in the front with your flowers? I admit that I wasn't very keen at first. It was intimidating to put the garden in the front yard but we thought there was a reasonable way to do it. 

Before thinking about the aesthetics we considered the practical aspects and aesthetics came naturally. We didn't want to deal with weeds so we made sure it wouldn't be an issue but we also wanted to make it as eco-friendly as possible. We realized that by making raised garden beds we could fill them with good soil and create beds that were perfect, that were controlled. 

We didn't want to bring mud indoors when going out to pick veggies so we used crushed stone covered with river pebbles so water drains easily and it stays clean. We chose eastern white cedar instead of wood coming all the way from British Columbia. Which means that in years, that initial investment that seemed large we paid it back with what we harvested. 

Drummondville's Front Yard Vegetable Garden

Drummondville's Front Yard Vegetable Garden

Socially as well we get a lot out of it because now we know our neighbors really well we made a lot of great relationships Gardening in the front yard allows you to meet people where before we just kept to ourselves. We realized that this vegetable garden had so many benefits Michel lost a ton of weight, he lost pounds. He had high blood pressure and now, when we go for a walk and stop at the pharmacy it's almost become a joke, we check our blood pressure - times We're proud of it because we've retaken control and became responsible for our health, for our choices. In the garden, there are beds that we installed on a space of feet by feet. The beds are feet wide to make sure we have access all the way to the center. When we started gardening, some of the veggies we had never seen grow. 

Some of the veggies we chose this year we'd never seen them grow so you can imagine the neighbors' reactions when they see the little eggplants growing. People are curious so they come by and it starts conversations. The other thing is that we have such abundance so we share with people. It's easy to give when you have so much and it doesn't take away from you. Once we'd finished building the garden it was all done and veggies were starting to grow. An inspector from the city drove by a few times and Michel stopped her to have a chat. We asked her a few questions and she said there had been a complaint. She said she'd get back in touch with us. 

A few weeks later, around mid-June we received a letter asking us to free up the edge of the yard to put back lawn and to have at least of vegetation coverage. So we went to the city and we realized that we still fell under the St-Charles bylaws even though St-Charles had been merged with Drummondville since the bylaws were still separate and different, and in St-Charles frontyard gardens were allowed. But the problem was that the city wanted to change the bylaw and from now on, prohibit front yard gardens. So that's why we fought. We knew that we were in the right so we left it as is. But we fought so that people wouldn't lose the right to have a front yard garden. 

Everyone was confused, they thought we were fighting just for our own garden. The city also thought we were confused but we knew exactly what we were doing. At some point they passed a bylaw that made our garden illegal. We saw that in the U.S. there were a few cases similar to ours where people were being attacked. But these people had been defended by Kitchen Gardeners International which was founded by Roger Doiron. We wrote Roger and asked him if he could help us he offered to start an international petition and then it started. In days, , names came in, , we stopped after days when the city said ok we'll change the bylaw , names a day, and countries were represented. 

Drummondville's Front Yard Vegetable Garden

With the pressure, they made it legal everywhere in Drummondville it's now allowed to have front yard vegetable gardens. We also have to say that every time a signature came in an email was sent to every member of the city council. We could say they were under siege. What they did is they consulted with us to build the new bylaw they took our garden and used it as a model to build the new bylaw. If it was in the backyard it wouldn't have the same impact because people wouldn't see it it wouldn't have this social and educative aspect That's what we realized through this and it's great that we're able to do it but we felt a responsibility with our front yard garden it's there, and some people need a little help to promote urban farming There was a momentum around our garden so we thought we had to use this momentum we wrote a book to help the cities who lack the tools to change their bylaws. 

You no longer have a reason not to change your bylaws we're giving you a guide on how to do things right. We present ourselves as an example, we're not making any money from this we have our -hour a week jobs we're ordinary people who two years ago knew nothing about urban farming we're showing that it's within anyone's reach You just have to roll up your sleeves and decide to do it. That's where we're at as a society we need to do things that make us feel good we no longer need to convince people that some things need to change We just need to give them examples, tools, and a bit of education. I think people are ready for this.

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Drummondville's Front Yard Vegetable Garden

Drummondville's Front Yard Vegetable Garden. We were a bit overweight and wanted to get in shape Michel was starting to have health pro...

Drummondville's Front Yard Vegetable Garden

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Hello. On this week's show we are going to concentrate on planting; how to choose the best plants for your garden. Welcome to the Garden Design Show. It's my mission to desmistify design to make it easier for you to create your dream garden. Properly planning your garden is as vital as properly planning your home. I am Rachel Mathews and I've been a professional, international garden designer for over years. I'm also a best selling author and I teach garden design online. And we'll also be visiting inspiring gardens around Europe and beyond to give you plenty of ideas for your garden. Now this is going to be a three-part episode. We are going to do a case-study garden for one of my most difficult clients, but before we get to that I am going to talk you through what I consider to be the most important parts of planning your planting scheme.

I am going to show you what to avoid and where it usually goes wrong. Then in the second part I am going to show you in detail the garden that we're going to focus on, and then in the third part in a few months time, I'll show you how that garden turns out. So whilst this episode is going to be packed full of planting advice, there is still a quite a good chance that it's going to upset the horticulturist and plant lovers. You might not like what I have to say. Now one of the main names of this episode is to help you avoid and get past the Spring time madness that hits as soon as we get a holiday weekend and the sun's out, if the sun comes out. Even if it doesn't, that urge to suddenly run down the garden center and buy as many plants as you possible can to fill your entire garden. Quickly! You've got to do it this weekend or else. That urge is what garden center owners love, but it doesn't give best results. If you can spend just a little bit of time planning and thinking about what you put in your garden before you rush down the garden center, you'll get so much better results.

How to Choose The Right Landscape Plants for Your Garden

How to Choose The Right Landscape Plants for Your Garden

Now I know that urge is incredibly powerful, you've got to get to the garden center now or they'll sale out. They won't they have lots of plants. They have back-up plants. They have plants everywhere. They won't sell out of plants. So, what do you need to know about your garden? The main things it's an absolute given that if you want success, put the right plant in the right place. It's really simple. Putting a sun-lover in shady area isn't going to work, putting something that needs shade in the sun isn't going to work. But you know this already, but again, if you impulse buy, you'll just say 'Oh I do, I'll look at that- Ill shove that in there.' That's when you waste a heck of a of money. So, research conditions you've got in your garden. Are the areas that you've got gaps in, are they in sun or shade? What type of height do you want? All that type of really basic stuff. So the aim is that you make a list of plants that will grow in your garden and that will suit your needs so it's going to be in your color scheme. Now in part , I'll go in depth sort of how you do that and how you put it down on paper. But, to begin with. Just assess what it is you need before you head off down the garden center.

Now something else that's really critical is allowing enough space for the plants. One of the mistakes that I made when I very first started before I trained as a professional designer, was to cram too much in. In fact, it's very difficult to stop yourself. So if you can read up on the plants you want to buy and find out how big they get over time, that will help you space them. And if you're putting it down on paper, you can put it to scale so you can see just how much space you've allowed for each plant. And again, that really does help save you a lot of time, money and digging things up for a later date. So something really important that I want to discuss with you, and this is the part that often upsets the horticulturist and plant lovers and it did actually upset me when I first sort of came across it is what actually makes a garden-worthy plant? Now if you are a plant lover or horticulturist, you'll have completely different ideas on what makes something garden-worthy than a designer will.

If you think about it, the majority of the time, you're probably viewing your garden from inside the house. So if you've put in a plant that requires a magnifying glass to see its leafs or flowers and you're really not going to be able to see it from the house that well, it's taking up space. So it's not probably a garden-worthy plant. Now I like to think of doing planting scheme as having an orchestra and making music. Now if you've go a small garden or small orchestra, say you've only got nine or ten people in it, you're going to have to be really, really, careful about what musical instruments are in that orchestra. You're going to have to pick the ones that deliver the most.

You know you can't have someone in there if you've only got nine or ten people. You're not going to have someone in there with a triangle going ding. It's just not value, you're not going to get the use of that person. And the same is true with your planting scheme. You need plants that do a lot more than just flower for a week, for example. So if you're going to buy plants, think multifunctional plants. They've gotta do more than one thing. So think phone. You know who has a phone these days, apart from my mother, who is just a phobe. You know, most of all phones play music, they surf the Internet, you can take pictures, video, organize your life.

And if you're really set, you can even have a conversation with them and ask them where you should go and have your dinner. That is what one device does these days. So when it comes to, translates to a plant, you want a plant that perhaps has a green foliage, it flowers, it fruits, its variegated, it has an interesting shape. The more assets that plant has, the more value its going to have in your garden and more interest its going to create. If you've got a really tiny garden, that is even more critical. Now if you've got loads and loads of space, yes then maybe you can have something that does flower for one week or one day or whatever, but if you can get at least ninety-five percent of your garden plants to have more than one use, so its not just about the flowers, its not just about the foliage, they are an interesting shape, or they fruit or they flower, they do something other than just flower you'll create much, much better results when you come to putting them together.

Now if you're a real keen plant enthusiast, and you've read about some amazing plant that was saved from the brink of extinction by a blind man on a three legged mule with frostbite, it was very brave he rescued that plant, its got an amazing story, but you need a magnifying glass to see it, do not put that in your garden- put it in a botanical garden, maybe in a glass house, anywhere, but don't stick it in your garden. That to me doesn't have garden value. Now back to our orchestra example, you do still need some star performers. Even though we picked a lot of multifunctional plants that can play multiple parts within the garden and scheme. You still need to have a few that just have the wow factor. They also need to be multifunctional. So you know the shape is important, etcetera, etcetera, but they are the things that flower for months on end, like lavenders, Nepeta, the catmint. And finally the next part that I think is very, very important is color. Getting the right color schemes. Now I'll demonstrate how to do that in part II. They are the basics that I think you need to get right.

Now there are a lot more things that you can focus on when you sit down and do a planting plan, but those basics will take you a long, long way. Now my parents were very brave when I was and decided I suddenly wanted to do gardens for a living. They let me loose on theirs. And I read one whole book on garden design. Well, I say a whole book, I skipped over boring bits, obviously, like measuring survey and all that boring stuff that you don't need to do. Oh you need to do it. Anyway, they let me loose on their garden and I spent months researching what plants I was going to put in. In those days, you know it was over twenty years ago, there was no Internet. I know, shocking. Well it might have been, but we didn't use it. You had to rely on books and you got a description this big that told you about the plants. And then I tried to plan it from that. And I made a lot of mistakes.

Now it was very fortunate that I made all these mistakes in my parents garden and not a paying client's garden because I learnt a great deal from living with those mistakes. And one of the main mistakes I made was not allowing not enough room and also misjudging the height of plants. That's very difficult because a book will tell you something gets to sixty centimeters height, so it's two foot. But actually that's when it's flowering the actual plant might only be this high. So if you put something in the middle of the border thinking that oh yea that gets to two foot cause you've read it in a book, then you end up having to move things around, and that's what we had to do in my parent's garden. Even though I put all this time and effort into researching it still went wrong.

But thankfully these days we have the Internet, so it's so much easier. You can do a Google image search on plants you want to put in, and you can see for yourself the shape and overall height and the type of thing that that plants does. So you might be wondering if my parents are so brave that they let me design their garden when I wasn't qualified, why are they might most difficult client? Well, whilst they were very brave the first time I designed their garden, because of it, all the mistakes I made and then I moved out and left them to it, I created the day of the triffids for them. And the garden just went bezerk. All of my little experiments. You know I thought it would be a good idea to have a Eucalyptus bush that I'd keep pruned and that would be a nice ever green background for all these lovely plants in front. I forgot to prune it one year and the next year and the next year it was thirty foot high. You know little things like that left them, shall we say, a little traumatized.

So by the time I was qualified. And you know ten to twelve years later knew what I was doing, by the time it came to this garden, they put quite a long list of restraints of things I was and wasn't allowed to do, which, you know, it's understandable. I think they were still traumatized by the first garden I'd done for them. So I wasn't able to design this garden quite as I'd liked. And as I'll show you later on, a few things haven't quite worked out. Because it was my parents I wasn't forceful as I probably would have been had it been with a client. So this was the garden as my parents first moved into the property and the brief with this one was basically to have it as low maintenance as possible with as few plants as possible. So the area that I feel is gone wrong on, is the left hand side by the hedge.

How to Choose The Right Landscape Plants for Your Garden

The border is far too narrow for the planting and this is where I really should have been insistent and made sure they had it larger, but, you know, I didn't and as a result the planting, although we get the hedge tightly clipped to begin with, as you can see in this image here it's gradually started to move over and its forced the plants out. And also with the change in conditions, with the winter flooding, we've lost a lot of things. So they've been stressed in the summer because of the hedge taking all the moisture out. So, and in the winter months where it has been flooding, a lot of stuff has died out. So we've had to re-do, we need to re-do the border. Now this is how the garden looks from the other side. Now this side had a lot more plants because of the shape of the pole and everything. So it was always a bit lopsided for my sort of comfort and taste.

So now we really need to figure out a way, you can see here this was filmed in February. We need to figure out a way to make this border larger and more functional and completely re-do it basically. Then in the next episode, I'll show you precisely what it was that we are in the process of doing to rectify the situation, but I want to hear from you. What do you think is the best way that we can sort out and make this border larger. What would you do if it was your garden? Now in the next episode, I'll show you the solution to that problem we got with this garden with the border being too narrow and I'll also talk you through the processes that I am going to do to create the planting plan for it.

But, if you can't wait until the next episode to find out exactly how, you can buy plants, then do take a look at this month's special offer, which is a combined offer of the five minute plant expert and the plant design formula. Now the five minute plant expert, I'll show you what to look for in order to choose the plants that will grow well in your garden. Now plants will often tell you what conditions they need just by looking at their leaves, so I'll show you some very obvious clues actually once you get into it. And you'll be able to know instinctively which plants are right for your type of garden.

And in the plant design formula, I will show you how to put plants together in combination. Now they way I do it is probably quite counter-intuitive. I don't really focus on the flowers, and I don't real focus that much on the foliage either. So it's probably making you think, what on earth is left? Well, this is far more important than those two elements. If you think about plants, specially in the UK, they are only flowering for set period of times. So if you've chosen a plant purely because of it's flowers, and the rest of the year it's not really doing a great deal, then you're not going to have a very interesting garden for probably other than two or three weeks of the year.

So this formula that I've developed will show you how to combine plants in a way where you really don't have to worry about flowers and the foliage too much and it will help you create a garden that looks good all year. Now if you buy both courses together, they are at half price for the next two days. So do go ahead and check out the website so you don't miss that offer. Now you leave the answers to this week's question by going to successfulgardendesign.com/show So if you've enjoyed this week's show and you think you know people that it will help, do please share it with them. And of course do please leave a review on iTunes or on YouTube, it really helps. The more comments you leave, get the show out there and it's going to help as many people as possible which is my absolute aim with Successful Garden Design. So I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.

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How to Choose The Right Landscape Plants for Your Garden

Hello. On this week's show we are going to concentrate on planting; how to choose the best plants for your garden. Welcome to the Garde...

How to Choose The Right Landscape Plants for Your Garden

0

Hi I am Rachel Mathews from Successful Garden Design. And this is the second part in our series on small space gardening. So in today's video we're going to look at what you can do with small and really, really tiny spaces. So if you've got an awkward corner, or somewhere that's just so small that you don't even think it's even possible to do anything with then this video is for you. So in the small space on the stairs, as you go down the breakfast room at Casa Aire De Lecrin, they have this little grouping of geraniums both in pots on the floor and hanging from the wall, but what makes this work is actually the structure they've put in. The pots and little features bring it all together, so that it is not just the plants. So as simple as this is, it's not just a few plants been plant down. There has a lot of thought go into it. 

From the monochromatic colors scheme right down to the ornaments and structure that provide the interesting backdrop to the planting, and then when you get down to the breakfast area even the tiniest of corners like this one, have a group for planting. And what makes this work is that there is different levels within the planting. So there is layers, and because it's going up, it draws the eye up. And again very subtle colors here, but they're not just relying on the plants. You'll notice that sort of wrought iron gateway and also the driftwood behind the planting that, solid structure does create a nice amount of interest. And then as we look around the breakfast area, and the poolside bit you can see again, whenever there is a group of plants, there is structure there in layers and just taking the eye up makes all the difference as you can see here.

Top Tips For Tiny Gardens and Awkward Small Spaces

Top Tips For Tiny Gardens and Awkward Small Spaces

And even on the ground in this very small garden, this mosaic draws the interest, and the very tiny pieces within it make that little space look much larger. Whenever you use smaller materials, you need a lot more often to fill the space, so your eye will automatically think, ahh lots of something makes the space big, so it's very good way to create the illusion of space. 

Now in the first video I asked you a bit of a trick question, what is it about this planting that I wanted you to notice? Well, the answer is look how few plants have been used in this garden. There is what, we got one, two, three, four, five, six in pots and just sneaking out we can see a vine. So that's seven plants. How many gardens do you know that can look this good with just seven plants? So that's what I wanted to draw your attention to. How important design elements are. The plants are the finishing touch, the icing on the cake if you like. 

You know in so many books and magazines and blog articles all you read about is plants, plants, plants. Now I am not saying they are not important, of course they are very important, but if you take into account the design elements, first and foremost, and then add the plants that's when the real magic happens. And that is my mission at Successful Garden Design, to get you thinking further than just the plants and starting to think about design and the impact it can make in your garden. Cause I absolutely promise you if you think about the design elements and not just the plants, it makes a tremendous difference. And actually it makes creating a beautiful garden so much easier. 

But I'll show you much more tips and tricks on how to incorporate design into your gardens in future videos. So for now, let's continue now with our tour of the small gardens in Southern Spain. And moising on out from the Casa the next door neighbor has an even tinier garden- and this balcony garden, as you can see it's absolutely crammed full of geraniums and again they've been very clever by using a limited color palette and that has created that abundant, glorious look and it has the impact because they've just gone for one or two variations on the same color. And that's been a very clever use of such a tiny space. 

Now going a little further a field, the city of Cordoba is well known for patio gardens where as you can see people just litter their walls with brightly colored plants. Again very compact color scheme, and again this works well because it leads the eye up. So you're really thinking the space so much bigger because of the vertical element. And they're very cunning. You'll notice there is no marks down the walls. They have the pots, there is a little wedge behind them where they keep them away from those lovely white walls. And they're watering them very precisely. 

Apparently, they have an albeit bean can or something on the end of a bamboo pole. So each pot gets exact the amount of water in each, and therefore there is no wastage or no masses running down the walls. And moving onto the narrow streets of Frigliana, they have loads of gardens. Well in fact, people have no gardens, they just use the street as you do. And again collections of pots and it looks beautiful- so you can have as little or as many you'd like. So hope today's video has inspired you to do something with your small space. And that you can see that size doesn't really matter it's what you do with it that counts. And if you have any suggestions for future videos, do drop me a line on the contact form at the lovinavillage.blogspot.com website.

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Top Tips For Tiny Gardens and Awkward Small Spaces

Hi I am Rachel Mathews from Successful Garden Design . And this is the second part in our series on small space gardening. So in today'...

Top Tips For Tiny Gardens and Awkward Small Spaces

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How to Make a Low Maintenance Fruit Garden. If you’re keen to grow as much of your own produce as possible but don’t have much time on your hands, then planning a low-maintenance fruit garden is a great solution. In this video we’ll show you how spending a little time and effort planning and preparing your fruit garden can result in maximum harvest with minimum time and effort. When choosing the perfect spot in your garden to grow fruit, the most important consideration is your soil. Most average garden soils are adequate for successful fruit growing, but all soil types benefit from the addition of organic matter such as compost it will lighten heavy clay soils and enhance nutrient and water-retention in sandy soils. 

Avoid any very wet areas in your garden or consider installing drainage, as waterlogged soils are rarely good for growing fruit, although cranberries can tolerate more boggy conditions. Likewise, a very dry part of your garden is best avoided unless you’re willing to install irrigation for low maintenance, you don’t want to spend half your summer watering plants! Drip irrigation looped around the root zone of your plants is very effective. 

How to Make a Low Maintenance Fruit Garden

How to Make a Low Maintenance Fruit Garden

Most fruit grows best in a sunny, sheltered spot, although some bushes such as currants are quite happy with some shade. Avoid frost pockets which can result in buds or flowers being damaged by the cold early in the year. A sheltered environment away from cold winds is essential to ensure that your plants flower well, are pollinated by insects and set fruit successfully. For windy areas, growing a hedge as a screen alongside your fruit, or taking advantage of the protection given by walls or fences will make a big difference. It's tempting to cram as many fruit bushes and trees into your garden as possible but overcrowding will result in none of them growing well. That's why a plan is essential. You can use our Garden Planner to mark out boundaries and fences, and work out how many plants will fit.

As trees and bushes are added, the grey circle around them shows how much space their roots require. It's easy to grow a wonderful fruit garden, only to find that the local wildlife enjoys all your harvest, so protecting your fruit garden from them is essential. Rabbits can usually be kept at bay with two-foot high chicken wire, also extending one foot down into the ground to stop them from burrowing underneath. To exclude deer you’ll need a higher fence at least feet, or .m, high. If you only have a few fruit trees it might be easier and cheaper to fence off the trees individually rather than the whole garden. Birds are a major pest of soft fruit, so in many areas it will be essential to net against them. How to Make a Low Maintenance Fruit Garden.

A fruit cage is the easiest option. Use metal or wooden posts for the frame, and netting or wire mesh for the sides. The top is best made out of light netting that can be rolled back for winter, as the weight of snow on top can collapse even very sturdy fruit cages. Bare earth is an open invitation for weeds, and young fruit trees or bushes are particularly vulnerable to competition for moisture, so to avoid having to spend hours weeding, make sure you cover the soil. Remove all perennial weeds before you start, then keep the soil covered with mulches such as home-made compost, bark, straw, leafmold or grass clippings. After a few years, grass or clover can be allowed to grow up to the trunks of fruit trees as a living mulch.

Grass will need to be cut every week or two if you want to keep it short, but if you use a mulching mower you won’t have to keep stopping to empty the bag. Plus, leaving the grass lying will enhance moisture-retention and fertility in the soil. Rhubarb also has a place in the fruit garden while technically a vegetable, it is often used as a fruit and is perennial, low maintenance, and a fantastic weed suppressor. Choose your fruit varieties carefully. In the Garden Planner you can use the Filter function to narrow down your selection. 

How to Make a Low Maintenance Fruit Garden

Make sure they are hardy enough to be grown outside all year round in your area without protection, and are not prone to particular diseases. Select high-yielding types to make sure that the work you put in is amply rewarded, or choose one plant that can do two jobs for instance some apple varieties are just as good used for cooking as for eating fresh. Apples, plums and pears are best grown as free standing trees, which are much lower maintenance and require less complicated pruning. But, if your garden is small, it's worth considering space-saving trained forms such as espaliers or cordons.

Finally, choose varieties to stagger your harvests so there is not too much harvesting to do all at once most fruits are available in early, mid and late-season varieties. When your plan is finished, you'll be ready to prepare the soil and order your plants. Don't forget to check out our video on How to Plant a Fruit Tree for tips on giving them the best start... Once established, fruits are some the easiest and most rewarding crops to grow. What are your favourite tips for planning a low maintenance fruit garden? You can share them with us by leaving a comment in the box below, and click the subscribe button to receive more great gardening videos. How to Make a Low Maintenance Fruit Garden.

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How to Make a Low Maintenance Fruit Garden

How to Make a Low Maintenance Fruit Garden . If you’re keen to grow as much of your own produce as possible but don’t have much time on you...

How to Make a Low Maintenance Fruit Garden

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Planting Boxwood Hedges in Historic Gardens, Chatham Manor, Fredericks burg, VA currently part of Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park The property dates to the s. This garden was designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman and Charles Gillette in the early th century. The garden that visitors see today was redesigned in the s. Over several days, a National Park Service team replanted missing historic boxwood hedges in the garden. Boxwood Selection The cultivar selected for planting was Buxus microphylla var. japonica ‘Morris Dwarf.’ 

1. Very low maintenance, compact growing cultivar 
2. Ideal for edging formal gardens because of its smaller size 
3. Requires very little pruning 
4. Few pest or disease issues 

Planting Boxwood Hedges in Historic Gardens

Jamie McGuane (Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation; Preservation Arborist) Now that we’ve selected the cultivar to plant in the Fredricksburg Garden at Chatham, we’re going to now look for healthy plant material.

So here’s a nice looking boxwood. You tell it’s got a nice green, dark green color, not a lot of dead on it. It looks very live and vigorous. We don’t see any signs of insects or disease within the plant so that’s a good sign for us. I stick my finger down in the plant and I can tell the plant is nice and moist so they’ve been watering it, so that’s good. These plants haven’t been drying out. Now if I squeeze the pot and take the plant out, I can take a look at the root mass. And you can see on this plant, there are some girdling roots on it, but it’s got a lot of good live roots and nothing that we can’t fix in the field by a couple of cuts.

Girdling roots form on the plant when it’s left in the pot for too long. The roots like to grow out, and when the roots can’t grow out, they start spinning around the pot and they wrap around the plant, and that girdles the plant. It could get up to the point where it would girdle the stem and kill the plant, but this is just not good. You don’t want plants that have been left in the pot for way too long. They should be potted up to the next size pot if they’ve been in the pot for a long time. 

Planting Boxwood Hedges in Historic Gardens

Healthy Boxwood :

• Dark green color
• No insects or disease on plant
• White or light colored plant
• Minimal girdling of roots Unhealthy Boxwood
• Dead or wilting leaves
• Unhealthy appearance that could mean disease
• Dark brown or dried out roots 

Preparing Planting Trenches Plants growing along the garden edge were carefully lifted.The plants were transplanted elsewhere in the garden to make space for the new hedge. This morning we’re going to be planting boxwood in a hedge in the gardens here at Chatham. We’re going to be doing that in trenches to place the boxwood about one foot apart from one another on center. By that I mean that we’re going to actually be placing the boxwood inches apart from center of plant to center of plant. We’ve prepared a trench to actually plant the boxwood and the trench was first dug with a pointed shovel to create the depth that we’re going to be planting the boxwood at and that will be about inches below the existing grade of the garden. After we rough dug the trench with a pointed shovel, we came in with a flat spade to actually cut the edge to create finer and more distinct lines. Then we graded out the trenches you can see its relatively level to about inches again below the grade of the garden.

Now when we plant the boxwood, they’re actually going to be coming out of their containers at different heights and when we remove the top portion of the soil to expose where the root flair or where the roots begin at the base or the stem of the boxwood. Those are going to be at slightly different levels from plant to plant so when we actually go to position the plant in the ground some of the plants we’re going to have to put some soil below these root balls in order to get them to the correct height. Others we may have to dig a little bit further into the trench to get them to the correct level. But this is how we’re going to prepare the remaining trenches in the garden to plant out the complete hedge along each of these garden beds. Setting an Alignment Line We’re going to be planting a boxwood hedge in this pre-dug trench, and we want to make sure that each of the plants are inches off of the edge of the existing garden bed, so using a tape measure I’m going to measure in inches off of the existing edge and put a stake in at the beginning of the trench.

From here I’ll put a second stake in midway down the center of the trench, and I’ll attach a string between this take and the next one down the row. So once this string is actually attached between the stakes at the center of the trench, we’ll use it as a guide to make sure that each of the plants is centered to one another and exactly inches on center from the edge of the bed. Planting Demonstration So now we’re placing the plants into the trench to layout the hedge and in order to plant them accurately within the row we have a few homemade tools that we’re using in order to properly space them. First, we have used some available staking bamboo to mark out inch increments. Those inch increments are being used from the center point of each plant to the center point of the next adjacent plant so we’re sure that they’re each inches on center.

Secondly, we have previously installed a line that’s exactly inches from the edge of the planting bed to the center point of each plant. So using these tools, we’re able to make sure that we have plants spaced inches apart and inches in from the edge of the planting bed. In order to make sure that we’re planting at the proper depth, we’re using a garden stake to identify across the width of the trench that we have previously dug- the depth at which we want the plant to actually be installed into the ground. (Once planted, the top of the root ball should sit just above the grade of the surrounding garden.) 

The planting process involves taking the containerized plant and first step would be after removing the plant from the container is to remove the top soil that may have accumulated at the base of the stem, just to expose where the roots initiate from and that’s usually about, in the case of these boxwoods, about an inch or so from the top of the root ball as it came in from the nursery. Then as we can see there are a number of circling roots around the base of the plant.

All the roots are very healthy, but the circling root pattern will continue to grow that way unless we break it apart. So there are number of different ways we can do that. We can tease them apart with our fingers and pull them out and break up that circling, or we can a soil knife or utility knife and in or areas around the circumference of the root ball we can sever the roots as well. From there, we place the plant using our story board, inches distance from the prior plant that was planted into the trench. And then we use the stake to make sure that we have the plant at the correct depth. And the depth we’re really looking for for these boxwoods is about an inch to an inch and a half above the grade line. Planting Boxwood Hedges in Historic Gardens.

Planting Boxwood Hedges

So in this case I’ll move the stake to this side. You can see that we’re about an inch and a half above the stake which means that we’re about an inch and a half above the grade of the garden to either side. This is because the hole we dug as part of the trench isn’t very compact, and this soil will settle over time and as such the plant itself will settle into that planting hole. So our intent is that the plant will settle to where it matches up with the existing grade of the garden over time. So that’s a good planting depth. It’s on the center line down the center of the hedge and it is inches away from on center from the adjacent plant. So now we’re ready to fill in soil around it. The soil in this garden has a little bit of clay in it so it’s clumped up a little bit.

Take that soil and we place it around the base of the boxwood and we firm it into place. And we’re ready to move onto the next one. Fertilizer We just completed planting boxwood in a row to form a hedge along the edge of this garden border. Just prior to planting, a soil test was conducted to see if we needed to adjust any of the nutrient levels of Ph of the soil. It was determined that no adjustments were needed. However, there were a number of wood chips that remained in the garden bed that were incorporated into the soil that couldn’t be removed as the holes were being dug and the trench was being prepared for planting. 

When wood chips remain in the soil and they begin to decompose, they draw nitrogen from the soil and make it unavailable to the plants to feed the decomposition process. In order to compensate for that, we are applying a fertilizer, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in order to support the decomposition process, or offset the nitrogen that’s used for the decomposition process while the wood chips are decomposing in the soil. So we’re just going to apply a very small amount of fertilizer around each plant and cultivate it into the top surface of the soil.

This fertilizer will wash into the soil as the plants are irrigated. Once the fertilizer is applied, we will irrigate it in, water it in and also gently wash off the plants to make sure any fertilizer that may have ended up on the foliage is washed off. After watering the plants in we’re going to then come in and apply a very thin layer of about one to one and a half inches of mulch to keep the weeds down and help the plants establish themselves by creating or developing good root systems in the soil. So we’ll continue to mulch the bed and the hedge route along the entire length and we’ll irrigate the plants in once more and let the plants grow and develop into a hedge. Planting Boxwood Hedges in Historic Gardens.

Planting Boxwood Hedges

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Planting Boxwood Hedges in Historic Gardens

Planting Boxwood Hedges in Historic Gardens, Chatham Manor, Fredericks burg, VA currently part of Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania Nationa...

Planting Boxwood Hedges in Historic Gardens

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Sara Breuer's garden in Northwest Austin has seen a lot of changes. She, husband Tim and son Henry arrived in . In my job, I do marketing and I work with a lot of creative people and that's inspiring to me. Along with renovating outdated design and inviting wildlife back in, Sara's challenged by soil that is far different from the East Austin garden she left behind. And as I discovered after I left the garden in East Austin, I'm not that great of a garden. I thought I was but it was really more the garden that was a great garden. That soil is is so deep and rich. And then I came here, and this is built on fill so it's terrible soil underneath. Its very clay. It's is hard to work with. This was much more challenging to get things going.

Updated Garden For Lifestyle, Food, and Wildlife

Updated Garden For Lifestyle, Food, and Wildlife

It had undergone a pretty big change in that there is a storm that came through maybe three years before we bought the house and took out large trees that were in the front yard. And then back here was a tiny little deck that was falling off the house and a bedraggled St. Augustine lawn that was getting scorched from having no more trees. In back, they dump the old deck in most of the slanting lawn for a family-sized outdoor getaway. This is kind of the living room. We can watch the birds or sometimes we see deer back there and watch the chickens. And then a dining area. That gets a lot of use when we have people over and you can see a lot of people on there. I mean when I was designing the deck, I wanted to make sure there were distinct areas to make it feel like I was on vacation back here. Rain. I throw all the cushions and pillows on this day bed thing and put a cover over it. I have this big canvas outdoor furniture cover. If I'm here. If I'm not, they stay out.

They sale into summer with umbrellas and shade sails. Then I decided we'll just do all of the umbrellas a pale neutral, partly to lighten it up and and partly because I like the orange on the upholstery and the pillows. And the orange makes a pretty bold statement. So i didn't want to have another competing color. Tim and Henry devised the way to hang these. I kind of had the general idea and I'm like 'Can we do this?' This happens a lot. I go to my hardware place. I'm like 'I'm looking for something that does this. I don't know what it's called and it's probably for something else but I want to make this. How do I do it?' And that's what we did here. We devised some poles by taking the top railing for a chain link fence and clamping them together and then clamping those holes to the chain link fence posts that were sunk into the ground already. And then we rigged up a way to hang them so that we didn't have posts here. This is one of the reasons that I don't have a permanent cover is because I didn't want to have anything blocking the view. Another reason that we did the levels so that it would be to code and I wouldn't have to have railings blocking the view.

Updated Garden For Lifestyle, Food, and Wildlife

Container plants of citrus scent the deck, protected with pop-up greenhouses in super cold winters. In warmer ones, they simply cover and clamp on lights if needed. With a Sharpie, Sara labels plants around the garden with bricks from an original planter against the house. The ones that are out in the sun definitely do fade overtime. Below deck, a narrow strip of lawn makes easy care footing against their greenbelt border. I do like having a little landing area. It does seem to keep things cool. She felt the back fence strip with multi-level plants that don't obstruct the Greenbelt wildlife from deck view. Like spatially like it's a room so I'm looking for things that provide structure and screening and a border, a frame if you will.

Things that have different textures. Different colors. To lighten up the clay, she gets yards of compost and mulch during spring clean up. Deliberately, it gets dumped in the driveway. I have to put a big big work day in so I can put my car in the garage. That's by design. Otherwise, it might sit there awhile. To take a little lawn to a new level, Sara designed a round viewpoint. Shelter rescue Jack approves when outside under supervision since former owners declawed him. Son Henry campaigned for chickens. He loves them. I don't typically let them free-range. There's a lot of predators around here. But when they do, he's the one who helps get them back in. He's kind of a chicken whisperer. They'll come to him.

Henry champions wildlife too. He earned a boy scout merit badge by making the garden a certified backyard habitat. Some of the times when I want to get rid of something that is too old or overgrown or just kind of a maintenance issue. See we have some older plants that are reaching the end of their lifespan. He's like, No no no! You're going to get rid of their habitat. You have to find a way to make it work. We've added lots and lots of plantings. There's a lot of shelter for birds. There's water. We keep water down low for the little guys. Below deck, Sara created another retreat. And on the side of the house, there's another round lawn that's more of a kitchen. She kept the resonant boxwoods that formalized the former septic tank spot.

Updated Garden For Lifestyle, Food, and Wildlife

A lot of friends talk to me about gardening and they ask me gardening questions and they say things like I want a no- maintenance garden. And I say, then you're going to have to hire gardener because you have to do something. She pumped up the usually neglected side strip with wildlife plants and art. And on the neighborly strip beyond the driveway, she went for gentle and interesting privacy borders. In front, she keeps widdling away the lawn. Early on, we left it because at that time our son Henry was younger and he had his little friends and they wanted to run around and they were always rolling around on the grass out in the front and that sort of thing. And for a long time it was nice. Then it wasn't. Since the front has the most sun, they expanded the limestone beds for herbs and plants for pollinators. Tim built raised beds for for Sara's new vegetable gardens. In , they diminished even more lawn with this homemade birthday gift.

Pinestraw is her favorite for vegetable. You can reuse it. It doesn't get moldy. It lasts such a long time and water can get through easily because there's a lot of airspace. And I love the way it smells. Near the house, Sara dredged up grass for a modern ranch-style patio rendition. To capture rainwater, she added a rain chain and decorative urn to her utilitarian barrel. Streetside, Sara's replanted for eventual shade. She understories with perennial layers. A tipi of rasberries mingles with roses. At night, a mason jar glows gently after she inserted the photocell from a plastic solar light. For the whole family the gardens is an interactive spot to apply their creativity together outside. I kind of feel like the actual design of the space and the experience that you have out here is my strong suit. The plant part of it, it's sort of just one of the things that I use to create the experience. I'm not really very good with plants honestly.

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Updated Garden For Lifestyle, Food, and Wildlife

Sara Breuer's garden in Northwest Austin has seen a lot of changes. She, husband Tim and son Henry arrived in . In my job, I do marketi...

Updated Garden For Lifestyle, Food, and Wildlife

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Bold and Succulent Small Garden On A Budget, Julie Patton and Eric Pedley put some pizzazz into their small yard, once home to lots of lawn. And then we wanted to spruce it up! The former owner was a mason. I don't think that plants were really his thing. He built a lot of really great stone structures that we can work with. When the owner of the house lost his eye and stopped building the wall, it was just cinder blocks, so we just stucco'd it and got some nice tiles and got a Texas star. I just kind of like orange and blue. Those are my favorite colors together. We filled in the end cinder blocks where he stopped and made planters out of those.

We don't barbecue too much so a lot of that area is just plants. Eric chose succulents to enrich the stucco style with their bold lines and softening colors. On the patio, the old handcrafted smoker makes great staging for container succulents. We used it once, but we didn't do that well with it. . I'm from Utah, I never learned how to barbecue. So how did Eric, from Utah, get into succulents, and actually start an East Austin nursery selling them? A friend of mine gave me some plants when he was moving to Costa Rica and that kind of sparked my initial addiction, and then I went to a succulent society show and sale and won some plants in a raffle, and then I just wanted more and more. There was no plan.

Bold and Succulent Small Garden On A Budget

Bold and Succulent Small Garden On A Budget

I was never a plant person. I just have an addictive personality. You know, as a kid it was football cards, Mad magazines, garbage pale kids. In his backyard, Eric propagates many of the plants for East Austin Succulents in greenhouses that are more addictive than mowing grass. In one green house he grafts some plants onto various fast growing cacti. In his hoop house, he grows succulents and seasonal vegetables. Since this is their home garden and after work hangout, Julie put a new face on the standard concrete patio. It's a concrete stain, yeah. You have to etch it, you have to do a chemical to it so that the concrete stain stays. Paint would never stay in a high traffic area. While Eric recycles plants, Julie recycles nursery pallets.

I just couldn't even believe the things that you could do with pallets. So I started picking up pallets and just trying little things. I had a ton of pallets, but I've only come up with this chair and this table so far. I'm not finished. And your compost bin inside. Yeah. I have a compost bin I made inside. But it's really neat and it's a cheap way to make your backyard look really pretty. Their rescued pets approve. She pepped up a foundling chiminea to match their vibrant scheme. I love color. I love it. I just, literally, I got the brightest color red spray paint, and I just sprayed it every so often I didn't do it all at once. I would just do it when I would come out here. That way I could see spots that were kind of dirty and keep the dirtiness there.

That way it looked a little more natural. Eric crafted some of the furniture too. I went through a woodworking phase, but I started getting scared because I didn't know where the hospital was. I just wanted to make a bench and I found out that all the mills, mill yards, are out in Bastrop. And there's a few of them, so my buddy and I drove out and bought a log. It's aromatic cedar. Every time you sand it, down each season, new colors come out. It's a really pretty wood to work with and the cats love sitting on it. I wanted to build a ladder that was artistic and useful and permanent. I wanted to be able to get on the roof of the shed, watch the sunsets and chill out with the cats. It's not scary when you walk up it. You can carry stuff up and it's not just really shallow. It's not skinny. And as far as everything else, like recycling, I mean, like these pots here.

All of these I get them for free. They were all free. You've got to take advantage of craigslist. You've got to just, you know, keep your eye out for things. And you can make really beautiful things and have it not cost anything at all. They enriched the gardens and containers with homemade compost. For succulent containers, Eric mixes finished compost with wood chips, gravel or perlite. To water their vegetables and their succulents when they need it, Julie and Eric head to the rain barrel. And a lot of people get rain barrels and spend a lot of time scooping their thing in and watering slowly or raising it up and getting a little trickle out of the hose. Bold and Succulent Small Garden On A Budget. 

But if you just get a little fifty dollar sump pump and attach it to your hose, you can have great water pressure to water all of your plants, and you have oxygenated magnetized water that's really healthy, and you can add all of your nutrients and you can add soap for bugs, and it's just a really easy way to fertilize your plants if you have a lot of plants. Eric raids office supply surplus stores for file cabinet planters drilled for drainage at the bottom. Here is his tip to save on soil in massive planters. Just Styrofoam blocks usually. Just shake your dirt down with big Styrofoam blocks or even logs, upside down buckets, that's good way to fill in that space. As far as design for the file cabinets, you just put height to the back and trailing stuff to the front. I just keep it simple. There are rules you want a spiller and a filler, and something else, I forget what it is, but..spiller, thriller.... you want a spiller, thriller.... oh my god what is it?

So your thriller is kind of the star of the show and I love agaves for that. Just something that's the crown of an arrangement. And then you have your height to the back and then you have something that's going to kind of trail over. And you want odd numbers. Simple. I just want variety. Most of the things out there are just from a six inch pot. It's a young yard. Just things I can get for cheap that will grow really well. I always put the yuccas to the back, because they're going to grow a lot taller than the agaves. And then throw in some ghost plants, because ghost plants are really cold hardy and they soften things.

Bold and Succulent Small Garden On A Budget

They make little cute spots. So with every agave that you plant, you can just throw in some ghost plants or some aptenia cordaflora, like the ice plants. I don't know any landscape design at all. I just kind of stick things where I like them and change them if I need to. It's just the desire to get rid of more grass, bit by bit over the years. Since Eric is growing on heavier soil, he trimmed the trees to allow full sun. And part shade gardens provide good drainage since soil won't dry out as quickly after rains. And top dressing makes everything look ten times better. If you just have some gravel on top, covering up the dirt, it looks great.

For a more organic look, Eric edges with scavenged stones, easily moved when he wants to broaden his plant avenue. That makes it prettier. Or even paver's stones flipped up. You know, the skinny way, the wrong way. And you kind of bury them in the ground. You kind of make little statues around the yard for free. Julie and Eric lucked into a brick mailbox from the former owner. Heat loving shallow rooted succulents handle this postal position quite well. A lot of succulents like a confined space. A lot of the mailboxes around here have empty spots, so I'll just go late at night and fill them in. I know them, so they wouldn't get too mad, but you know... 

Yeah, he's all, "do you think they'll be mad at me?" and I say, "No! It's awesome, go do it." Yeah. Eric's made lots of new friends since he met his succulent destination. Well I had eleven jobs my first year in Austin. I have a degree in environmental studies that got me into the Peace Corps, but I never really used it because you have to be environmental science to get good jobs, and so I was just doing what I needed to do to pay the bills bartending and I'm really glad that I fell into it because I discovered a passion. I like doing what I'm doing. And it's been nice. And I always have spines all over me and my back hurts and my feet hurt, but I love succulents. Bold and Succulent Small Garden On A Budget.

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Bold and Succulent Small Garden On A Budget

Bold and Succulent Small Garden On A Budget, Julie Patton and Eric Pedley put some pizzazz into their small yard, once home to lots of law...

Bold and Succulent Small Garden On A Budget

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Hi, I'm Justin, a landscape designer who likes to specialize in urban spaces. My goal is to show you that you can build a garden anywhere. You might not think you have enough room for a garden, but even if you have just a wall and a little bit of room down at the bottom, I have a project that we can do today with some cinder blocks and plants. They can add some greenery to any urban space. Let's get started. So I started a base here with cinder blocks at the bottom I'll just add this last one here. You can turn these any which way you want.

Cinder blocks are great because they're modular and they fit together really easily. I'm not gonna glue these together because I'm not going very high. But if you want to go bigger you could easily get some landscape glue and caulk gun and make these as high as you want, and secure as you want. As I turn these blocks out this way, I'm making space for plants to go here, have space here, and then we're going to keep going across. It's nice to alternate the direction of the blocks so that the one on top will hold together the ones underneath.

How to Build a Cinder Block Garden Wall

How to Build a Cinder Block Garden Wall

So these are nice and sturdy now. And my last block and I think we're ready to get these ready for some soil. I have some wire mesh here, sometimes called hardware cloth, I've cut into just a cross shape, a little plus sign. And so you just fold these pieces up once we have that cross shape cut, and it makes a little basket. That's to be the beginning of what is going to hold our soil in place. So once we start getting our wire mesh baskets in place we can start thinking about what we're going to do to fill these up. So, you want to get a potting mix that's going to be good for containers since we're not planting anything in the ground. You can customize this with a moisture control potting mix for vegetables and herbs, or you can get a succulent mix. if you just want to grow ornamental succulents. We don't have to worry about these fitting super tight in here because once we get our potting mix in here and our plants, it will fill them and press against sides at the block to keep them in place.

So now I've almost got all the baskets placed in here to hold our potting mix I'm gonna add one more layer to make sure it doesn't leak out the bottom. I've taken some weed cloth and just cut it into some squares and am just going to set this down here in the bottom. so that the weed cloth lets water through but it will keep the potting mix in place. We don't worry about these being too perfect because it's going to be covered up at the end. Now that I've got the baskets and the weed cloth cut and placed inside of here, I'm going to start thinking about which plants something to put in here.

Water Garden Pond Design

So I can put the right potting mix in each opening for the right plants. Since I've got this in a sunny spot I picked plants that will do well in full Sun and also plants that will take the heat because it's pretty hot here in Austin. So I really love using succulents her because they can do well in small containers spaces and you don't have to water them quite as often. I think I'll start with the succulents here since these overhang they might dry out a little bit faster than the other ones here the are protected from the wing coming underneath. I like the softness of this Mexican feather grass in contrast to the kind of hard lines and structure of the succulents. This is a great little euphorbia that does well with less water too, and adds a little spot of sparkle with it's white flowers.

We can also put some herbs in these small spaces. Basil is one of the easier herbs to grow I think. It's really easy to use, you can put in some sandwiches, salads, pesto, and it's nice to have right at hand whenever you need it. Oregano is a nice herb too and since this is a trailing one I'm going to put up one of the higher planters so that they can spill down over the edges, and that will be really attractive later. I think I need a little bit more color in here, I'll add some flowers on the corners. This is another good one with a trailing habit so maybe I'll swap this will over put it on the corner so that it can hang over the edge here. We will have all our herbs here in middle then. I think I'm everything in place.

Build a Cinder Block Garden Wall

I like the trailing plants on the corners up high, especially the oregano, and these other flowers, and the grass for a little bit of height. I like the way they will move in the wind. And then the bright color the geranium on the side helps to pull it together so that we don't get lost on the edges. And the succulents will look good against the background of the blocks here in the front. So I've got my two potting mixes, one's the regular moisture control Miracle-Gro and the other one is specialized for succulents. I'm just going to get a small amount started in here so that we can see how much will need to hold for the roots of these plants. So I think I have enough potting mix in this one we'll go ahead and plant this. Just tease the roots out a little bit, that will get it ready to fill the space that is going to have now. We'll top off with a little bit more potting mix.

You may find that the first time in water these in, you might need a little bit more potting mix because it might settle a little bit, and that's normal. I'll go ahead and jump over here to one of the succulents. So, this potting mix is specializes for succulents and other plants that need good drainage. It has a little bit more sand and added to it so it doesn't hold too much water for the plants. Another nice thing about succulents is since they are slow-growing you can even add more than one into a small space. Just get some small ones, start them off and pack them in here for a really nice miniature arrangement inside your garden. So we have this all finished up and it goes to show you that you can as a life to any small urban space. We'll be back again with some more projects and other challenging spaces. Until then, get out there and get gardening. I'm gonna finish this one up. We are making magic happen here. How to Build a Cinder Block Garden Wall.

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How to Build a Cinder Block Garden Wall

Hi, I'm Justin, a landscape designer who likes to specialize in urban spaces. My goal is to show you that you can build a garden anywhe...

How to Build a Cinder Block Garden Wall

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Hey I'm Eric Triplet, The Pond Digger and today we're gonna take you on a personalized pond tour. We're gonna show you some pond design ideas, that you can incorporate into an existing pond, or you can use on a pond that you're getting ready to build. We built this pond about eight years ago, and it's always a crowd pleaser when we have our pond tours. But, there's some specific things that we did here, that sometimes people overlook, and they don't understand why they like it so much. 

So we're gonna point those things out specifically today, so you can use them in your own back yard. A neat thing about this pond is, it's big. It takes up almost the entire area that they allocated for it. But one thing we had to do, we had to create a crossover, so you could come to the path, work your way around to the destination point that's over there. So what we did is, we created this land bridge. And the way to do it and give it a natural look is, we landed these two logs. On either side of the bridge, threw a little bark down, but we have a, a support underneath it. And so, it looks like at some point in time a tree fell, and now we can cross over the tree but the fish can still come across from side to side and it's just a really neat effect that I think people really enjoy. 

Water Garden Pond Design

Water Garden Pond Design

All right, I wanna point out the aquatic plants in this pond, and the way they've been planted and how it affects everything. I like, I like to do what I would call a specimen plant. One plant, that is like an exhibit. It's like, a plant that's in all its glory, and it's not muddied up by another plant growing through it. So when you look at this plant, this one for example, it's called blue bells. In the summertime, solid purple flowers all over it and then just when you look at it it's just gorgeous. And it's not disrupted by a, another plant that's right next to it. And if you look around the pond, you'll see red with variegations, you'll see green variegated, you'll see soft leaves, you'll see violet stems. And each plant has it's own location and they, they typically are not growing into each other. And that makes a big deal when you walk in and you see the plants just sitting there in all their glory, the specimen plants as you walk around the pond, they just look gorgeous. 

So, one thing I wanna point out about this water feature, is we have a different kind of stone than what we're typically using. This, this rock's called Coco Flats and it's very angular, it's almost like a bunch of stepping stones, it's got a really rich, earth-tone color, and we've used this around the whole coping of the pond, and in the waterfalls. Now, below water level, we use a less expensive stone, the granite that you'll typically see from most contractors. And we use it below grade, it gets a little bit algae growing on it. You can't really tell what the color is. Above grade, we use the Coco Flats. Gives it a neat, interesting look unlike most of the ponds in the area. Okay, so my favorite thing about this pond is the koi. 

I mean, what can I say? I'm a fish geek. It's bred through and through in me. I'm telling you when people walk around the corner and they see fish swimming around like crazy in this pond, it really, it's, it takes your breath away. A lot of these koi were actually born in the pond, they didn't start with this many, but they don't wanna give any up. And, so when you see that many koi, it's just fun to see. Well that wraps up our little personal tour of this pond. I hope you can use some of the ideas we have given you today, on your own pond or a pond that you might be building. Take care, and thanks for watching.

Water Garden Pond Design, Designs garden, formal garden design, contemporary garden design ideas, front garden design, garden ideas for large gardens, landscape gardening ideas for small gardens, modern garden design ideas, front garden design ideas, planting design

Water Garden Pond Design

Hey I'm Eric Triplet, The Pond Digger and today we're gonna take you on a personalized pond tour. We're gonna show you some pon...

Water Garden Pond Design

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