Browse Category: Gardening and Landscaping

Uses for Cherry Trees

Cherry trees have various uses in landscape layout. Depending on the number you choose, these tiny trees make perfect privacy displays, creamy hedges or street trees. You may even develop a few cherry trees as a bonsai or in containers. Cherry trees have showy blossoms and typically, but not always, get 20 to 25 feet tall and favor sites with acidic soil featuring full sun to partial shade. The fruiting varieties bear edible fruit or inedible drupes that attract wildlife, and some flowering varieties bear no fruit in any respect.

Boost a Privacy Screen

Shield your outside sitting area from onlookers throughout the warm weather months when you plant flowering cherry trees which develop into perfect privacy displays, including pink star flowering cherry (Prunus “Beni-Hoshi”), that rises in USDA plant hardiness zones 5b through 9, and the cherry tree “Accolade” (P. “Accolade”), that rises in USDA zones 6 through 8. These cherry trees grow in any sort of moist, highly acidic to alkaline soil, provide beautiful pink blossoms in spring and have green leaves which turn bronze or golden in fall. They produce no edible fruit to litter your own yard, and pink star flowering cherry contains fragrant blossoms.

Fruiting Hedges

Define property lines and block views of unsightly things in your yard when you plant cherry trees as hedges, including Surinam cherry (Eugenia uniflora) as well as the Cornelian-cherry tree “Variegata.” Surinam isn’t a true cherry tree, however it rises in the warmer climates of USDA zones 9 and 10 and creates an abundance of yellow, orange or crimson cherry-like, edible fruit up to 3 inches across in summer. It prefers moist, loamy or sandy soil with a pH that is slightly acidic to slightly alkaline, has shiny green or bronze foliage that turns red or purple in autumn and it bears attractive white blooms in spring. “Variegata” features green leaves outlined in creamy yellow which turn red in autumn. It favors a well-drained site with any sort of acidic soil, produces yellow flowers in spring which yield red edible fruit in the summer and grows in USDA zones 5 through 8.

Container Gardening

You can plant select cherry trees in containers to decorate porches, patios and walkways, including the Cornelian-cherry trees (Cornus mas) “Alba” and “Flava.” These cherry trees thrive in any type of acidic, well-drained dirt. They adorn your yard with yellow blooms in spring that become white, yellow or gray edible fruit in the summer and also have green leaves which turn red in fall. “Alba” and “Flava” provide moderate to moderately dense colour and develop in USDA zones 5 through 8.

Street Tree or Bonsai

You can plant the cherry trees “Bright N Tight” (P. caroliniana), also known as laurelcherry, and “Hally Jolivette” (P. x “Hally Jolivette”) as street trees or nurture them as bonsai specimens. “Bright N Tight” grows in sites with full sun to full shade in any sort of well-drained dirt. It has evergreen foliage and aromatic white blooms in spring that become black edible fruit, and it rises in zones 8 through 10. “Hally Jolivette” prefers a site with full sun and any sort of well-drained, acidic soil. It produces white or pink blossoms in spring which don’t produce fruit and grows in USDA zones 6 through 8.

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How to Landscape a Full Sun Slope

Think about an unusable or boring slope as a creative opportunity and transform it into a vibrant garden which adds interest to your outdoor space. Although landscaping slopes can be hard, a slope also presents an perfect chance to create a low-maintenance garden get the most out of open space which may otherwise go unused. Successfully landscaping a slope is dependent upon plant selection and placing the right plants in the right locations.

Evaluate the slope’s dirt to find out the soil type. Sandy soil does not retain nutrients or water; while clay soil compacts easily and tends to drain poorly. Although the general recommendation for poor soil is to include a few inches of organic substances to the ground, this may not be a practical solution to a steep slope since tilling the soil may increase soil erosion. Colorado State University Extension recommends selecting plants which are tolerant of these states, spacing plants farther apart than standard so that there is less competition for soil resources, and planting little transplants which may adapt to inadequate soil simpler than growing plants from seed or planting massive transplants.

Stabilize a gentle or moderately sloped area using plants. The website Sunset.com recommends selecting plants with deep, big, strong root systems. Trees and shrubs for example ceanothus, better known as California lilac, help hold soil in place and combat soil erosion. Trees and shrubs also usually need less maintenance than flowering perennials. The University of California’s Sonoma County Master Gardener recommends planting trees, big plants and shrubs on a slope rather than allowing them to reach from the slope at precisely the same angle. Sunset.com indicates building berms, ridges which are just 1 or two inches high, on the side of the plant which faces downhill. This catches rainwater, preventing runoff.

Build a terrace or even many terraces on a steep slope, as ascertained by the rise and run of the wave. Terraces create mini-gardens, make planting areas more accessible and decrease soil erosion by shortening the length of the wave. Gardeners can create terraces by digging trenches to form the front and side of each terrace, leveling the trench and installing a retaining wall to stabilize the slope. Although stone and brick may be used to create the retaining walls which encourage each terrace, landscape timbers would be the most cost-effective substance. Sunset.com advocates reviewing your plans using a structural engineer prior to getting started.

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How to construct a Small Arbor

Large garden arbors function well as daring focal points in the home garden, however a little arbor functions well to span small garden trails or as a decorative feature in a flowerbed. A 6-foot tall trellis is that the minimum height needed to enable most adults to pass beneath the arbor, but it is possible to scale down the size even further for a children’s play area. Use pressure-treated lumber so that the arbor isn’t damaged from outside exposure.

Dig four 2-foot deep postholes that are around 5-by-5-inches square. Space the back and front post holes about 4 feet apart to span a pathway and approximately 2 feet apart to the arbor thickness.

Set an 8-foot 4-by-4-inch article in every posthole and fill the holes with wet concrete to set the poles securely. Hold a degree from the side of every article to check for plumb. You can screw a 2-by-4 to the article using 3-inch wood screws and then conduct the opposite end diagonally to the bottom to brace the poles while you permit the post to set for at least 3 hours.

Expand 6-foot long 2-by-4s on top of the front poles and back poles with 3-inch wood screws, leaving 1 foot of overhang at each side.

Attach 2-foot long 1-by-4-inch boards horizontally to span the two left poles along with the two right posts, using 3-inch wood screws. Space the boards around 12 inches apart, starting 12 inches in the ground so it’s possible to train vines around the sides, if wanted.

Screw 3-foot long 1-by-4-inch boards to the front and back horizontal 2-by-4s to form the arbor very best. Space the boards 6 to 12 inches apart, depending upon your preference, leaving 6 inches of overhang at the front and back of the arbor.

Brush wood stain or wood water sealer on the entire structure to preserve the wood. Alternatively, paint the wood instead to add color to the landscape.

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How to Make a Bog to get a Pond

An artificial bog can purify water, filtering gray-water and runoffthat enhances its quality for fish, other animals and plants. A bog also gives the chance to grow quite a few colorful and intriguing plants. It might make a pond look bigger without dropping just as much water to nest within an open pond. The water from an existing pond also can be allowed to back into a bog.

Select a website for the bog at the border of the pond. An superb website is a place where water already flows into the pond. Mark out the region to your bog using flour. Pump enough water from the pond using a submersible pump or allow it to drain via a garden hose so that the water in the pond is at least 6 inches below its ordinary level.

Excavate the bog area to a depth of 2 feet 3 inches under ground level. Catch a ridge of soil between the bog and pond that is 3 inches lower than the pond’s normal water level.

Line the bog with 2 inches of sand. Cover the sand using a flexible pond liner. Drape the liner above the ridge of soil and into the pond. Use waterproof glue or waterproof tape to attach the bog’s liner and pond’s liner. Secure the liner edges, and disguise the liner by putting stones on it.

Fill the base of the bog using 1- to 1 1/2-inch round gravel to a depth of 6 inches. Cover that gravel with at least 6 to 12 inches of pea gravel.

Construct a barrier with rocks along the ridge between the bog and pond. Put a screen of 1/4-inch vinyl mesh on the back of the barrier.

Fill the bog with soil until it is level with the surrounding soil. Cover the soil with organic mulch, such as wood chips or shredded leaves.

Refill the pond. The water will flow over the barrier and into the bog. Allow the soil settle for a couple of days, then plant wetland plants in the bog.

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