Most people have a backyard project that can look messy when work is in progress. For these reasons a secret garden or garden workroom can be a benefit.
photo credit: Or Hiltch

My garden workroom area is located behind a shrub hedge. The backyard looks tidy, but watch out when you enter the garden workroom!

Right now the workroom has two compost bins, an area for plants I salvaged from my flooded side yard and a holding area for new shrubs I purchased. I am also setting up a temporary moving greenhouse for the shrub cutting I am starting. I plan to start close to 500 shrubs. Some I will use in the new garden areas, other I will swap for different perennials.

My backyard is large so I can fit a 20-foot by 12-foot work area in easily. You can also plan wisely and use a small area of six foot. Any spare area in the backyard will do.

To set up a garden workroom decide on the area of space that is available to you. Will you need a compost area? Small portable greenhouse? Large amount of sunlight?

It’s also important to have a source of water and possibly electricity if you need lighting or will be using hand tools.

The next concern is how to partition off your work area. You could use a row of hedges like I have. Or you could put up a fence or a temporary partition wall made of latticework or wood.

My one friend created a temporary garden room by using tall sunflowers and flowering vines. The flowers lasted long enough to create a secret garden room for her messy backyard project and added color and fun to the side of the backyard.

Temporary plant holder.

I have about 200 perennials that need moved this weekend to clean up my one flooded part of the yard. It’s a mess and everything has to be moved.

I could have used some beams I had from tearing down a fence but I wanted a project that was as easy as possible and could be moved or taken apart in no time at all. So I chose old dresser drawers. I pick up dresser drawers along the curb or buy dressers that are falling apart for $1. I keep the dresser hardware for mosaic projects and stack the drawers until I need them.

To set up a temporary plant holder, drill or punch a few holes in the bottom of the drawers for drainage. If you have a lot of compost you can mix compost and soil and plant the plants quickly, water and set in shade for a day so they will suffer less from transplants shock.

If you are lacking in soil you can either head to the garden center or mix some of your own, after all this is a temporary holding area for plants.

These dresser planters can actually be made to look very cute in a theme garden or hillside garden area. Plant the front or add fake brick or cemented pebbles and they will accent most garden areas.

Mixing a fast soil for the holding beds

Place 4 inches of straw, leaf mold or compost in the bottom of the drawer. Top with 4 inches of soil from your yard. Add 3 or 4 inches of straw or grass clipping. Add more soil (at this time of year when hanging baskets are finishing up I use the soil from them for many projects.)

Place the plants in the drawer and water well. Top off the soil with grass clipping to help hold in moisture. I often will use a weak compost tea or fertilizer to help with plant shock.  I usually cut the perennials tops down at this time. Winter is almost here and the tops will die back anyways. Let the growth go into the soil not the tops, which die in a month or so anyways.

If you don’t have dresser drawers and wood box or even a cardboard box will work for a week or two.

Fall is a great time for moving and dividing perennials. If you need to make a temporary home for them the dresser drawers may be a perfect solution. Just remember to plant the perennials in the ground before the frost starts.

Technorati Tags: backyard design, perennials, planting perennials, secret garden workroom

Shrubs are used in four broad ways: for boundaries. for partitions and backgrounds, for specimens and for foundation plantings. We have discussed these uses of shrubs and the characteristics demanded by each use. Even at the risk of repetition, further discussion with the particular plans in mind may be helpful.
photo credit: albany_tim

Boundaries

Boundary plantings are used to give privacy and to screen from view any unsightly objects beyond. Also, they tie the whole garden together to give unity, and they act as a background and frame for the garden displays.

Boundary plants need to be dense enough and high enough to shut off the view, with some variety in height to make the skyline interesting. Sometimes it is a good idea to leave gaps in the planting, to show desirable views beyond the boundaries.

As mass effect is desired, plant shrubs in groups of one variety rather than single plants of many sorts. Choose the shrubs for their rapid growth, spreading habit and mid-green foliage rather than for distinctive features.

Wherever bloom occurs it should be in large enough masses to be effective at the distance from which it will be seen. Bloom, of course, is always attractive but in large gardens it is not as important in boundary plantings as in parts of the garden where it will be seen in more detail.

On small city lots we cannot hope to attain complete privacy or to screen the view of all surrounding buildings. On some lots the boundary planting takes the form of a hedge, or a fence on which climbers are grown. On others it is made up of groups of shrubs that not only back up the bright displays of the garden but to a great extent form the displays themselves.

Partitions and Backgrounds

Plantings separating small lots are more like partitions than boundaries.

The purpose of partitions, or background, plantings is to separate one garden area from another. Here, bloom and other distinctive features are important as the shrubs are close at hand and consequently are seen in detail.

Keep in mind that partitions and backgrounds are seen in elevation, and in your plans arrange them so that they will be most pleasing at maturity.

There will be points where you need boldness and increased height in the skyline. Here you should use “dominant” plants – small trees or large shrubs that have coarse foliage and a dense appearance whose height and texture makes them stand out above their fellows. These break the partition into sections or pictures.

Usually the center of interest in each of these small pictures consists of low-growing plants, such as those that spread horizontally or have some other particularly attractive feature. These we call “interest” plants. They are backed up and flanked by “fillers,” average sorts of plants whose function is to enhance and connect the other two.
photo credit: Margaret Anne Clarke

In all good shrub grouping in informal gardens, harmony is the rule, contrast the exception. There should be harmony of form, and of color and texture of foliage, with strong contrast of form and texture used only at strategic points.

Foliage color should blend gradually with the bright, warm greens near at hand and dark greens, blue-greens and gray-greens farther away. This gives the impression of added distance.

Texture, too, may be used to create illusions of distance or to emphasize certain points. Large foliage and coarse twigs like the bamboo palm plant are seen more clearly than fine foliage and twigs and, consequently, seem to be closer. For this reason large shrubs and palm plant of coarse texture make large spaces seem smaller. Similarly, a coarse shrub at the front of a border of fine-textured shrubs stands out very distinctly, and fine shrubs backed by coarser ones appear flat.

Specimens

Shrubs used as specimens, or accent points, in the garden lend emphasis to particular features of the design.

Kent Higgins frequently contributes to plant-care.com. The more you know the better decisions you can make, like the topic of bamboo palm plant.

Technorati Tags: backyard oasis, gardening, landscaping, plant care, plants, shrubs

The backyard is a place for relaxing and enjoyment but it’s also a place that shows the personality and interests of your family. What you include and the atmosphere that is created will let visitors know quickly who you are.
photo credit: Anika Malone

There are also stories created in the backyard. Many people include a hobby or interest in the backyard. Sports, art, a hobby such as trains are just a few of the many stories that surface in the backyard design.

For those who are interested gardening and landscaping starting your own shrubs lead to interesting stories. Your new shrub may be from a clipping off your Grandmothers bush or from a friends yard.

My most interesting shrubs came from a restaurant in South bend Indiana. The restaurant caught on fire while we were attending a Studebaker car show. We were in the hotel  next to the building. The next year we returned for another car show and stayed at the same hotel. the restaurant had enough damage that it went out of business but had not yet been torn down.

The bushes were so pretty out around the abandoned building and I knew the building would soon be torn down and the bushes would be bulldozed.  I borrowed a pocket knife from a friend and took clippings of the bushes. I found a nursery and bought some liquid plant starter, sans and paper cups.

Needless to say, the other Studebaker club members had a few laughs over my adventure.

I spent one afternoon starting shrub clippings in the hotel room. They were stored in the  room until we left and made the eight-hour trip home in the trunk of a 59 Studebaker.

Shrub clippings can be collected from friends and it’s amazing how many people will share a small clipping of their favorite shrub to a stranger who asks. It always leads to an interesting story and usually a few free perennials or plants.
photo credit: Mick E.Talbot

My backyard has perennials and shrubs from many states. I just have to check the growing zones of any shrub I get from another state.

**** I also check to make sure its not an invasive plant in my state or that the plant does not have any insect on that would not be good to bring to my community. Please this is a very important step to take. It’s even important when buying plants from a local nursery.

Fall is one of the best times to start shrub clippings. They have enough time in the fall to develop roots, particularly if you use a rooting hormone. And when spring returns they are a small plant ready to grow into a beautiful shrub that will add character and beauty to your landscaping and backyard design.

Here are two excellent sites for information on how to start a healthy clipping.

Propagate your shrubs from softwood cuttings

Shrub propagation

Starting you own shrubs makes for intersting stories for your guests but it also saves money and they make great gifts for company.

Technorati Tags: backyard design, backyard landscaping, backyard oasis, starting shrubs

At this time of year it’s easy to find free or cheap plants. Many nurseries are downsizing their plant inventory so they don’t have to over-winter shrubs, trees and plants.
photo credit: steve conry

You may also need to move plants quickly such as I need to do and when that is the case you need a holding bed to put any plants in to keep them healthy until you can plant them.

I had to move all my plants out of my front raised bed area and find perennials that were moved when a hillside garden was washed out in a flood we had this summer. So all told,  I had at least11 perennials varieties to move. The perennial groups were large so its fair to say I had over 175 plants that need to be planted as soon as possible.

Creating a holding bed for plants

So I took two large 10-inch posts measuring 10 foot in length and laid them parallel with a three-foot distance in between. I used two bales of straw on the bottom, 10 buckets of rotted sawdust, 5 bags of rotted leaves (referred to as leaf mold) and about 4 wheel barrels of dirt (yes dirt, not soil). I added a little compost on top and put the plants in.

Once the plants were in I watered them and then covered the mixture with grass clippings to help retain moisture.

This should hold the plants until I can get them in their new home – two weeks at the most. I will water them again tomorrow and then leave them alone for a week.

Tip: The plants will determine the depth of your holding bed. Shallow rooted plants need less depth while shrubs or trees will need more depth.

I set up the temporary holding bed in a semi shady area so the plants should do well and not suffer in direct sun.

To make a quick holding bed any large wood boards or beams should work. Dresser drawers and old crates will also work. And I have seen hay bales used too.

As long as you can create a temporary raised garden bed area anything that will hold soil will work.

photo credit: lepiaf.geo (back on 8th)
All you are doing is creating an area where you can hold plants for a few weeks until you plant them in their new garden location. You need a soil mix that the plants can live in, water and to place them in the ground and not disturb then until you are ready to plant them again.

I have used temporary holding beds many times in the past. It has saved plants and been a big help when I find plants, trade plants or have to move a large amount of plants quickly.

Technorati Tags: backyard oasis, landscaping, moving plants, perennials, plants, raised beds, temporary holding bed

The “new look” in building architecture started in Europe, and on this continent in California, early in the 20th century. It did not come to Canada until after the Second World War.
photo credit: artefatica

Basically, modern architecture is functional rather than decorative. It emphasizes the structural mass in buildings and calls for ordered surroundings.

Garden planning has not developed a modern style to such a clear extent as architecture, since traditional materials and practices have not changed as much in gardening as in building.

Gardens cannot be purely practical as their function is largely decorative. Their reasons for existence are to provide beauty, relaxation and a natural setting for the buildings. When we work with complex natural forms, it is difficult to adhere to the plain surfaces characteristic of modern architecture.

Today we arrange plants in new forms to suit the scale and proportions of the new buildings; and we arrange the space in our gardens to suit our changing social habits.

The key idea in modern garden planning has been to consider the garden as an outdoor extension of the house for the comfort of the family, rather than as a plant museum.

This idea has also led to using more outdoor furniture, lighting, BBQ, screens, shelters, swimming pools and other things for decoration.

The average homeowner wants pleasing surroundings and a place to relax, with little labor and expense. Most of us look after our own gardens with perhaps a little unskilled labor for grass cutting and other regular chores. Unless gardening becomes our hobby, we will have less variety of plants than in the past. Also, there will be more careful planning of space as we become more appreciative of good design.

Because we need privacy, where there is little space we now use screens of closely woven lattice, opaque plastic or broad louvers of plywood to separate our garden from the neighbor’s. The more expensive walls of masonry or boundary plantings of trees and shrubs take up too much room to be used in a small garden.

Plants of rather unusual form are used in front of these flat surfaces to cast interesting and changing shadows not artificial lights.

The effect of moving light and shadow is given by the lattice or louvers themselves, or by “egg-crate” beams in the roof overhangs on garden shelters. The interest of this movement is a substitute for variety in planting and artificial light for plants.

Concrete paving blocks and three-dimensional cast figures are taking the place of more expensive stonework and statues. The outdoor barbeque grill, with dad cooking has replaced tray-carrying servants for entertaining.

Because we like to sit and enjoy the garden from one spot, raised masonry planters, decorative pottery or flower beds are used to connect the inside of the house with the garden, when viewed from inside.

There is more to learn on low voltage garden lights. Join us at Plant-lighting

Technorati Tags: backyard oasis, garden, garden design, gardening, landscaping, plants