Landscaping - Plant and Shrub Protection

There's nothing worse than spending hundreds maybe thousands of dollars on new Plants and shrubs for your landscape only to have them damaged by Mother Nature. Plant and shrub Protection is very important especially in a young landscape.

Spring Protection involves shielding tender Plants and blooms from a late frost that can wipe out an entire investment. What is used to protect Plants depends on what is being covered; a whole bed of petunias or a prized tomato Plant.

Coverings vary from bed sheets, to sticks and plastic, to pre-designed reusable structures. When covering tender Plants take caution that the coverings do not lie on the Plants or touch the leaves.
Winter Protection for your landscape involves preventative care for your tender perennials and young or delicate shrubs. Winter damage can occur from diverse sources.

Evergreen shrubs need to be protected from the drying winds of winter. Moisture evaporates faster than the frozen roots can replenish leaving the needles brown on the tips or even worse. Bushes need to be shielded from the wind and also a strong sunny southern exposure. For large evergreens, burlap wraps are available otherwise building a windscreen is sufficient.

Young shrubs, evergreen or deciduous, and perennials need to be protected from more than just the wind. Plant damage can occur from hungry rabbits and deer, bark or root damage from extreme temperature changes, and structural damage from heavy snowfall especially when Planted near sidewalks and driveways.

Perennial Protection can be as simple as a good mulch cover, but shrub Protection usually requires more creativity and some construction. It can involve tepees made of evergreen branches, chicken wire filled with leaves, or complex frames to protect shrubs from the snow. Pre-made devices are available on the market and can be convenient depending on simplicity of installation and storage, for instance The Garden Dome made by Riverbirch.

The time, money and effort spent on protecting your new landscape are an investment with a profitable return in years of enjoyment and loads of compliments on your beautiful landscape.

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Growing Bamboo As a Landscape Plant

Bamboo is one of the most versatile Plants in the world. The wood from bamboo is extremely light, strong, and durable, yet it grows far faster than even much softer woods. For all of its marvelous strength as a building material, it can also be processed to create some of the softest fabric available today. All of this is in a Plant that is also very disease-resistant, easy to grow, and quite beautiful. For these reasons and more, it is quickly becoming a popular choice as a Landscape Plant. Big bamboo is especially popular as a privacy Plant for it's extraordinarily quick growth. With a little care, it can be an excellent addition to your garden or Landscape.
Choosing the Right Bamboo Plant for You

The main considerations when choosing your bamboo should be hardiness. This is a pretty simple thing to factor in, as any reputable nursery or Plant source will be able to tell you the hardiness by zone of any bamboo they sell. When choosing your bamboo, keep in mind the eventual height and potential for invasiveness. Many types of bamboo spread rapidly, and this can become a problem in coming years. To reduce this, either choose a bamboo that is of a non-running or clumping type or install a spread barrier. A spread barrier can be just a sheet of thick plastic (about 40 mil) creating an underground border defining the edge of the area in which you want your bamboo to be spread. Bury your plastic from the surface to around three feet deep to block the rhizomes from spreading the Plant underground. The height to which some big bamboo varieties grow can also surprise many new growers. Most common varieties can be trimmed fairly easily to a wide range of heights, but trimming the top ten feet off of a thirty-five foot tall Plant can be somewhat difficult. Thus, it is sometimes best to keep upward growth limitations in mind when choosing your bamboo if you won't be willing or able to trim it down.

Planting Bamboo

Choose a spot for your bamboo that gets a fair amount of sun; either full sun for part of the day or filtered sun all day. Most bamboo types do well near water, but don't thrive with wet roots, especially when young. For most bamboos, Plant in a moderately acidic, loamy soil. In very heavy soil, digging organic material into the dirt where you are Planting can make a big difference, as can heavy mulching (which will attract earthworms, who will loosen the soil for you). Depth and hole size will vary depending on the type of bamboo you're Planting, so following the instructions of your Plant source is best. Generally, though, you'll dig a hole to about the same depth as the root ball and break up the soil around it to allow the roots room to grow out. Water thoroughly once you've filled in around the root ball, and keep the Plant watered for the first several weeks, taking care not to overwater (the ground should be moist but not wet a few minutes after watering). Too little water is better than too much water for newly transPlanted bamboo, but keep in mind that new bamboo in hot or windy weather will need more water. The best time to Plant bamboo varies by area, but spring is usually best, as it will give the bamboo Plant lots of time to establish itself before winter comes. However, in mild climates most of the year works well, and even in cooler climates nearly any warm part of the year will work, so long as there is time for your bamboo to get established for winter.

Bamboo Plant Care

Bamboo is a pretty versatile, adapting Plant, and if you've chosen the right type for your area and Planted it in a good spot, it should do well with very little care once established. However, if you want to maximize growth, there are three important parts of bamboo care to keep in mind: mulching, fertilizing, and watering. A thick mulch can do a great deal to protect the roots of your bamboo, especially if you are growing bamboo that is only borderline hardy to your area or if Planting later in the year, and it can also provide nutrients and help the soil to stay moist. Just about any organic mulch will work. The leaves that fall from your bamboo throughout the year, and especially in spring, are best left on the ground where they can act as part of the mulch and recycle nutrients back into the soil. Grass is the best mulch for bamboo, but hay and wood chippings are also great choices. For quickest growth, fertilize in the Spring after the Plant is well established. A general chemical fertilizer is OK, but a light layer of cow manure (or any other cool manure) will work better (as well as being cheaper and better for the environment). Bamboo does pretty well without too much water, but if you want your Plants to thrive throughout the dry seasons, you'll need to water them regularly, letting the ground dry out between waterings.

Bamboo is an extremely tough Plant, capable of surviving many types of mistreatment. It is also a beautiful Plant with unique characteristics that make it a perfect Plant for privacy, sound dampening, or just as an accent for almost any property or garden.

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Landscaping Designs For Your Backyard

To the majority of Americans, Backyard landscape Designs are sort of a new thing. Most of them have a boring and a non-descript Backyard that, in more than one way, resembles their neighbors.

Granted, Backyard Landscaping tends to be a little more complicated than front yard Landscaping but this is no reason to leave Backyards unkempt.

Front yards generally follow a purpose of invitation and accessibility. The notion behind this is that the front lawn will initially be seen by people before they enter the house and thus it should be inviting and direct the guests easily through the front door. The same however, cannot be said for the back yard. Backyard landscape Designs tend to centre on appearance and appeal for entertaining and relaxing with friends. This is the simplest reason why Backyard landscape Designs are gaining so much popularity these days.
Before you decide to take on Landscaping, you must remember that everything in this project needs careful planning and decision making. While most consider Landscaping as a way of leveling the ground, it is also another way of revamping your garden and giving it a brand new look.

Before you can commence on Backyard Landscaping or any other Landscaping for that matter, you need to do a thorough assessment. Be honest about what you see. When it comes to Backyard Landscaping, look at your home garden objectively and judge it as if it belonged to your neighbor. This exercise is encouraged above all else because it portrays Landscaping, not only as an art that requires imagination but also as a science that requires observation and data collection.

After the assessment, you are now free to choose the style that best suits your garden. The style you adopt should be based on the prior assessment that you carried out.

Many people prefer hiring landscapers to do this for them. However, if you're the kind of person who takes pride in designing his own home then here are some tips that might be of interest to you.
It is almost impossible to talk about Backyard landscape Designs without mentioning plants. In this text I will mention Designs that are friendly for all types of Backyards.

To begin with there is the Holly, Coral Bell and Yew design.This simple design easily embellishes and adds flavor to your yard. It especially has a reputation for bringing out the best features in your garden specifically the eastern side. These plants have been known to send subtle messages of warmth throughout the year and hence can be spotted flourishing in many back yards.

There are also landscape Designs for sun perennials. This design is very useful if you're looking to fill a hot sunny area of your Backyard. Many landscapers recommend it as a fun sun specialist that requires very little watering. They say it is easy to set up and will provide color from spring to fall and even into the winter.

There are also landscape Designs that are meant to hide ugly foundation walls. In Backyard Landscaping, plants have been used to create an environment of solitude and hide unwanted features such as unwanted Landscaping rocks and unpleasant foundations. Such a design uses only two plants that are perennials namely; the Burning bush and the Globe blue spruce.

The Globe blue spruce is used because it stays the same color throughout the year while the Burning bush, which is green in spring and the summer, has been known to explode and become bright red in the fall. These plants act as perfect camouflages and they obscure any areas that you may feel are unpleasant and wanting.

Lastly, there is also a landscape design for specimen plants. These Backyard landscape Designs are meant to highlight a particular tree or bush that you love. Many adopt this design for Crabapple trees and burning bushes although it can be used for any plant that you adore.

The trick with Landscaping is in your skills. Try as much as possible to become familiar with the principles of Backyard Designs and keep in mind that the style you choose will determine the level of beauty of your Backyard.

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