photo credit: lissalou66

There are several advantages to wildflower gardens.

• They have a delicate beauty and seem to fit into any landscape.
• Once established wildflowers are easy to maintain and use less water, a plus in areas that suffer from droughts.
• They seem to adapt to whatever weather conditions that you have even if your summer is cold, damp or too dry.
• Wildflowers are usually flowers native to the area and they grow strong with little insect or diseases.
• Bird love wildflowers and will provide entertainment with their activity.

Planting wildflowers is also good for the environment and for wildlife. Wildflowers feed the birds naturally and will provide safe cover for rabbits and chipmunks.

Perennial wildflowers will come back year after year and provide an easy way to have a beautiful garden of flowers with less work and expense. Add rocks to the garden area or old root pieces and you have a rustic look that will add peace and tranquility to a section of your backyard oasis.  I like to tuck wildflowers in small corners that are usually overlooked.
photo credit: DTraveler

When planting your wildflower garden, make sure all weeds are out of the garden area you have selected. This will give you wildflowers a better chance of establishing themselves.

You can purchase wildflower seeds at a gardening store or nursery. You might even be able to gather some yourself to use the following year or ask friends who collect seeds if they any extra wildflowers seeds.

I try to pick seeds that are perennial flowers. Your garden will take less work with perennial wildflowers and will save you money and time.

And make sure you buy enough seeds to cover the area of land you wish to use. The seed packets will give you this information or ask an employee for advice. And in many stores you can get the roll out mats with seeds embedded in the mat. I have used these and they work very well.

How to plant a wildflower garden

Prepare the soil by loosening it with a rake or shovel. I add compost to ensure it is rich soil that will help flowers to grow well for years to come. And make sure all weeds and weed roots have been removed for the soil.

Loosen the soil again on the day you plan to plant the flower seeds. Dig a small hole, and drop in one or two seeds for wildflowers. Continue this process until the area is planted. I like to sprinkle some seeds about the area and then use the rake to mix them into the soil. You get a more natural look using this method.

Water the seeds frequently. Keep the area lightly moist until seedlings appear. This is usually a week or 10 days. You may wish to add a protective border around the area where you have planted seeds to protect you newly planted wildflower garden from children and pets.

Wildflower gardens are beautiful and once they start to grow you will be able to enjoy their color and fragrance for many years to come.

Technorati Tags: Backyard Garden, backyard oasis, flowers, wildflower garden

When you set out to landscape your back and front yard, you should take all the elements into consideration.
photo credit: TheLawleys

Your overall year round climate will determine what type of landscape will work well and flourish. You will have to think about whether you live in a windy place, a hot climate, a rainy place, or a dry one and then figure out what to plant. When you construct the right type of area in combination with planting the right kind of plants, you will have a garden area that looks spectacular.

Any landscaper should know a thing or two about the flora and fauna of the area and what type of soil is in the ground. Plants perform differently in different types of soil and some research should be done to find out what might work best.

You have to take into consideration the pest that might be a problem as well as the weather conditions. After you think about all those things, then it is time to plan how everything will be put together.

Designing a garden will allow you to pick from a wide spectrum of colors, shapes and sizes of plants and flowers. There are plants that have purple, yellow, blue, pink, and red colors and of course there are also vines and shrubs that have all sorts of looks.

You will also need to decide whither you want your trees and plants to be evergreens where they always stay green or whether you want ones that lose their leave at winter time.

Plants and trees can be chosen for functionality as well as looks. Big shrubs and trees can help shade a house from the sun during the summer and hedges can be grown that serve to provide privacy.

Natural walls built of plants and shrubs always seems to look better than a wood fence that will grow old and worn looking over time.

For backyard landscaping, lots of other ideas come to mind. Front yards are often designed to be pretty while backyards get more use from kids and pets. If you have a young family with children, your backyard will be a private place where they can play in the grass and throw a ball around.

You will want to make sure you keep enough free space for those activities while surrounding the yard on the edges with pretty plants. Landscaping for an older couple with no children might be completely different, as you might want a stream or some type of running water in place of the play area.

Backyard landscaping ideas will be different for every person and every couple depending on their needs at that moment in time.

Technorati Tags: backyard oasis, diy, flowers, landscaping, plants

The Backyard garden adds one more dimension to your yard and it’s surprising how the addition of plants seem to enlarge your backyard and adds to the relaxing feeling you are trying to create. Your backyard garden area should be an extension of what you like both in design, color and use.
photo credit: Zanastardust

My backyard always has a mix of flowers, vegetables and herbs. They grow in raised beds, theme gardens and hanging baskets. I guess you would call it a backyard jungle. But it’s relaxing and fun. And that is what gardening should be, fun!

Flowers tend to be the easiest gardens followed by vegetables and the last garden variety that tends to be more work are fruit gardens. Fruit gardens need more maintenance to keep insects away. Insects are attracted to the sweet in the fruit and don’t like to take no for an answer

In order to make sure you have a healthy fruit crop you will have to decide if you use a chemical for insect control or use natural insect control. I always use natural pest control that I mix up using home ingredients. I also hand pick insects if necessary. I may loose a few fruits this way but its worth it knowing I have healthy produce and have not hurt the environment.

My backyard fruit garden consist of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. I also grow melons in the garden area. These smaller fruits produce well and are relatively insect free. This is because I make sure I have the best-fertilized soil I can mix up and use a heavy ground cover to keep moisture in the soil. I also grow a few fruit crops in hanging baskets.
photo credit: axelkr

My larger fruits do include fruit trees, which is a whole other category when it comes to care

When considering fruit trees I would carefully check your growing zone conditions and take into consideration how much space a fruit tree will take. You will also need to check and see if the fruit trees you select need another tree to help pollinate the fruit crop.

Dwarf trees or espalier trees may be a consideration. They take less space and espalier fruit trees are very pretty and often are used to help create privacy in smaller backyards.

Fruit trees need to have sun and be located in an area where the wind can move through the trees. Growing too close to a larger tree or a building that blocks sun and air current will cut back on your fruit crop. One last consideration is do you have the time to prune your trees? Fruit trees need pruning to keep the tree healthy and let the sun get to the fruit.

Growing fruit in your backyard garden oasis will add more work but there is nothing quite as nice in the morning than a fresh peach that is warmed by the sun or homemade strawberry shortcake. As with all gardening and additions to your backyard oasis you need to consider time and the additional value it adds to your property and your needs.

Technorati Tags: Backyard Garden, backyard oasis, flowers, fruit, perennial flower, small space gardening, vegetable