article: Water Garden Design

Water Garden Design

The planning of a water garden or the extension of a water garden is an important stage that will affect how your water garden ‘grows’ and ‘lives’ over the next several years. The over all design of your water garden is important in considering how you water flows in and out of the garden. If you have this feature, how your water will be cleaned, if need be, and where you are going to be able to plant flowers, and use other types of detailing in the water garden such as sun catchers, statues, water fountains and such.

The water garden is to be an eye-catching part of your gardens. If you are designing a garden as a center of various other gardens, including colors or similar type textured flowers in the water garden as in your other gardens, it will be a success. The water garden is about graceful water movements; the stillness or the sounds of the water are an added bonus.

Formal water gardens will use materials that make the water garden finely detailed, such as thick straight lines and defined paths around the water garden. The stonework and the detailing of the water garden should match through out the formal water garden. If you start your water garden using red stones, these same red stones should be used in the path of the formal water gardens.

There are no ‘set’ shapes that you must make your water garden to match unless you are using a pre formed pond liner. However, even with the pre formed pond liner, you can make subtle changes to the over all shape of the water garden, and by expanding and adding to the water garden.

A water garden is often sunk into the earth, but with some type of wall or detailed outline above the soil that will additionally outline the water garden. Not all water gardens are going to use this higher wall above the soil. The water garden that does not include a wall around the water garden is referred to as a sink garden. A sink garden has more of a natural outline to the structure of the garden, without hard detailed boundaries for the water.

While you are planning the details and the outline of your water garden, it is often a good idea to draw it on a piece of paper. When working on the water garden you can make changes on that drawing so you can see what the final garden will look like before actually making the changes. Allowing space for paths and for some types of bushes along the sides of the water garden is another task that you can plan on the paper while you are planning your water garden.
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Three Reasons to Consider Purchasing a Greenhouse

A greenhouse is an addition to your home, or it can be a freestanding structure in your landscape. If you garden, you most likely have been in a greenhouse at one point or another. Commercial greenhouses can seem overwhelming and large as they house so much, but you have to think about a greenhouse on a smaller scale, one that will hold rows of your favorite plants, vegetables and it will give you a place to work with your plants.

A great reason to consider buying your own greenhouse is that you can buy or save seeds from your own gardens for growing plants. This drastically cuts back on the expenses that you have in growing your vegetables and flower gardens in the spring months.

As you learn more about growing in the greenhouse, and how much many seeds you can really start in the greenhouse, you will be amazed that you will not have to purchase anything from the commercial growers! After a few years, your greenhouse actually will start paying for itself.

Another great reason for owning a greenhouse is that you can expand your hobby to growing flowers, vegetables and plants through out the year. A greenhouse gives you the ability to do what you love the most and when you want, not just during the spring growing seasons. A greenhouse expands your growing seasons even if you do not want the expense of heating it in the winter months.

You can start planting seeds in the months or March and April for out planting in May or June. In the fall months when the weather is getting a little cooler, you can move your plants into the greenhouse and prolong the life of your vegetables and flowers even longer.

One last reason that you may be very interested in building a greenhouse is that you can grow organic foods, vegetables, fruits, and herbs from seed to produce for use in your home. Some individuals with types of food allergies or chemical allergies are starting to take over their own food production and growth, which can all be accomplished in the greenhouse.

Building and owning a greenhouse is an enjoyable hobby for the whole family as you can each have your own little corner of the world where you can take control of nature, grow the plants that you love the most, and enjoy the seed as it germinates to a plant.