Gardening Tips

Ready for something different in your garden? Take a look at Japanese bridges. These beautiful ornamental bridges bring the Far East right into your back yard or garden.

Japanese bridges add elegance to gardens and look beautiful when placed over a koi pond or Japanese style dry river bed. There are many flowers, shrubs and trees that compliment Japanese bridges also.

If you are interested in Japanese bridges for your garden you may want to look online for ideas and suggestions. There are excellent sites that not only feature the bridges but have information about planning an entire garden space in the Japanese style.

Many of the designs for these Japanese bridges are taken from ancient drawings. The Japanese bridges are graceful and unique. Place a Japanese bridge in your garden and create a space to meditate, a quiet area for contemplation and dreaming. These are just a few of the benefits of having a Japanese bridge.

You might want to begin planning a Japanese bridge by surveying the space you have to work with. Make sure the Japanese bridge is the correct size. The Japanese bridge will not look as lovely as it should if it is too big or too small for the area. Think carefully about the other things you will have in the space. You will want to coordinate the flowers, trees and any other ornamental elements you plan to use. If you have a pond you will need to determine the best Japanese bridge for the pond.

Plan carefully and you will be able to add a little Oriental flair to your yard even if you live in New York City!

Anyone who knows me well knows that there is no place I would rather be at the end of a long day than out in my garden enjoying a cup of tea. In the cool fall and spring months, I prefer a cup of hot peppermint tea in my garden, and in the heat of summer I apt for a cup of iced lemon tea. There is something magical about being in my backyard garden that I just cannot get enough of. I have read more books, journaled more pages, and shared more great conversations with my family in our garden than almost anywhere else. The atmosphere of my garden was recently made even more magical when we strung garden lighting throughout the entire thing.

I have no idea why I hadn’t thought of using great garden lighting before, but I was definitely open to the idea when my artistically driven teenage daughter suggested it as we sat on our back porch one night with tea cups. She thought that garden lighting might do something special for the mood of the garden and that it might make us want to spend even more time there.

Before I knew it we had sat our tea cups down and were headed to a local gardening store to see what kinds of garden lighting we could find. We were amazed when we took time to look through the store at how many garden lighting options we had. We choose a few strings of tiny Chinese laterns that we in bright teal and olive colors. We both loved them and knew that they would be the perfect garden lighting for our needs.

We rushed home and decided not to wait until morning to put the garden lighting up. Instead, we went immediately to our backyard garden and began stringing the lights from tree to tree to tree. After checking to see that all of the bulbs worked, we decided not to let ourselves turn the garden lighting on until we had it all up and hanging in place. I’m so glad we waited because when we finally turned on our new garden lighting it was amazing. The small and colorful Chinese laterns did a lot for the look and feel of our garden. The garden lighting only made it more inviting than it was before.

We gathered the rest of our family and brought them outside to see our work. They enjoyed the garden lighting as much as we did and within minutes we were making popcorn and had plans to enjoy the backyard garden together that evening. I love the way my garden lighting looks, but even more than that I love the way our garden has become a gathering place for the people I love most.

Most people think of landscaping as rocks carefully placed, manicured lawns, and large trees scattered about a property. However, a garden can make a very attractive addition to any landscape. Whether it is an herb garden or whether it is a vegetable garden, these features can be just as beautiful as any other landscape element, and provide added benefits as well. Well maintained vegetable and herb gardens also provide other benefits: they are a source of food and can be a source of very pleasing smells.

An herb garden is one of the most common types of edible landscape. This is because they are very easy to grow, very tolerant of a variety of climates and conditions, and because they grow rapidly. Additionally, herbs are more than just tasty. Many of them look very nice, with attractively shaped leaves and different shades of green that can add a subtle beauty to the landscape. Not only that, but herbs often smell nice. They can surround your home with a pleasing perfume that exudes a true sense of “home.”

Many people plant parsley, rosemary, and thyme in their herb gardens, but there are other herbs that can be planted as well. Cilantro is a little milder than parsley, and it has a different look. Mint is another herb that many people do not think to plant, as is lavender. Both of these herbs look different, and they both give off very nice scents. Another herb with a very attractive smell is Roman chamomile. Even though some of these herbs may be less frequently used, it is possible to find plenty of recipes that use them, and lavender and chamomile are noted for their usefulness in providing an atmosphere of calm. So even the scents can be of use. Simple bring them into the house and enjoy the feelings that accompany the smell.

Vegetable gardens are other edible landscaping devices that can look very attractive. They, too, can be planted in a variety of climates, and can be grown in a variety of soils. There are some plants that grow only in certain regions, but your basic garden fare can be grown almost anywhere. Just the look of green plants has been shown to be soothing, and when you grow your own food, it adds another dimension of satisfied feelings associated with self-confidence and accomplishment. Every vegetable has its own look to it, and so it is possible to enjoy a variety of different looks by carefully choosing the plants that you grow. However, you should choose, first and foremost, plants that you will eat. If you are not going to eat much squash, avoid planting it. But there are plenty of vegetables that have very attractive looking plants and even flowers. Peas have cute little flowers and send up beautiful curly vines. And there are many species of pepper that look beautiful after the fruit has arrived, with their yellow, greens, and reds.

When you use herb and vegetable gardens as part of the landscape, there is no need to plant them all together in one place. Spread them around the yard. Use tomato plants and squash plants (including pumpkins) can be used as accents. Herbs make excellent ground cover. Most vegetables and herbs can be grown very successfully in containers. You can make a very attractive landscape design if you use flower boxes for your herbs, and if you use quaint old antique washtubs for things like beans. Pretty sticks can be decorated to emerge from decorative tins for your peas.

The great thing about growing vegetable and herb gardens as part of your landscape is the fact that they are edible. They do not cost very much to plant, and they can save you even more money down the road when you buy less produce at the grocery store. Additionally, if you have too much you can always bottle or freeze it for later. Many people use the excess plants from their gardens as gifts to their neighbors or family members. There is no reason to relegate herb and vegetable gardens to some hidden corner of the property, or even to garden in a conventional way, with large plots. You can add distinction to your yard by using the unique and inexpensive method of landscaping with herbs and vegetables.