Funky Garden Plants 2

Written by Valerie Garner


What's a perennial garden plant that blooms inrepparttar winter? A hellebore! It is an outdoor plant that is shocking to see blooming sometimes inrepparttar 113443 snow. There are many varieties. They are perennial which means they come back year after year. These are best planted in shady areas, but where they will get sun inrepparttar 113444 winter, for instance under leafed trees or something of that nature. What is so unusual about hellebores is that they bloom somewhere between Dec. and March. There are very few plants that do that! One variety is called a Christmas Rose. These plants usually must be puchased at a nursery. Check out your local nursery for this wonderful family of plants.

Another plant you'll surely want to try is called Sweet Annie. This is actually an annual herb, inrepparttar 113445 worm wood family. The seed is very fine and you sow it in direct sunlight inrepparttar 113446 spring after all danger of frost is gone. Sweet Annie can get up to 6 feet tall. It's fragrance is wonderful! My favorite use for Sweet Annie is inrepparttar 113447 fall to cut it torepparttar 113448 ground and dry it. It can be used as wonderful, fragrant filler for dried flower arrangements, and it can also be bound with fine wire to form a wreath base of its own. Simply tuck in other dried flowers here and there around it and you've got a beautiful dried floral wreath with a fragrance to die for!

Decorating around the garden

Written by Melissa Cameron


Straight Talk On – Decorating Aroundrepparttar Garden

Do you live near a park? Most people do – there are so many around now. All levels of government recognizerepparttar 113442 value of a green environment. And, of course, if people know that government has provided them with lots of parks and trees, they’ll get lots of votes. Butrepparttar 113443 bottom line is – we have, in North America, some absolutely beautiful parks.

Some ofrepparttar 113444 most beautiful parks are natural areas, untouched by man, with lots of trees and plants flourishing in their natural environment. For example, New York’s Central Park is a welcome escape fromrepparttar 113445 hustle and bustle ofrepparttar 113446 city, even though it’s right inrepparttar 113447 middle ofrepparttar 113448 city. In California, there’s Redwood Park, with its statuesque redwood trees. In Vancouver, Canada, there’s Stanley Park, another beautiful acreage of natural habitat, set right next torepparttar 113449 city.

And then there arerepparttar 113450 world-famous gardens, like Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia,repparttar 113451 Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England, andrepparttar 113452 Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town. These displays of flowers literally take your breath away, their beauty is so stunning.

But you don’t have to go aroundrepparttar 113453 world to find a garden that takes your breath away. You can create your own park – your own place to go on sunny Saturday afternoons, complete with shady trees and cool summer breezes. You can createrepparttar 113454 best of parks right in your own backyard (or front yard, too, for that matter).

Imagine your garden as a beautiful park

Why do people go to parks?  Most would probably say that they go to parks to relax.  Think ofrepparttar 113455 soothing feeling you get when you walk into a quiet forest, with their pine needle beds and their sweet scent of mature wood. Or perhapsrepparttar 113456 park you most like to visit is a garden of floral delights – roses, chrysanthemums, magnolias, and perhaps even orchids. These gardens are definitely places that whisk us away fromrepparttar 113457 rush of your daily lives into what almost seems like another world. These arerepparttar 113458 gardens that are decked out in flowers, with colorful garden decorations, statues, bridges, fountains – allrepparttar 113459 things that just call out to you saying, Come. Sit down. Relax. Breathe inrepparttar 113460 wonder of nature. Who could resist that call?

But you don’t need to go out to parks or gardens to find an environment so sweet. You only need to go as far as your own back yard. There’s no reason why you can’t create a garden of your own, just as good as any you’ll find in your neighborhood, or in your tourist area. You can create your own garden.

If you don’t think you’re creative enough, then there are lots of landscapers who can give you expert advice. They’ll come and survey your yard, and present you with a number of plans that’ll give you a wonderfully unique garden that’ll make yourepparttar 113461 envy ofrepparttar 113462 entire neighborhood – or maybe evenrepparttar 113463 city. Landscapers are trained professionals. They can design and create a whole environment of beauty from your plain old yard. But whether you hire somebody, or do it yourself,repparttar 113464 possibilities are endless. There are literally hundreds of ways you can beautify your garden. One unique way is with a decorative mailbox and post in front of your home.

You can create a garden as good as any park

To come up with a wonderfully-landscaped garden, just sit back, close your eyes, and let your imagination run wild.  Picture yourself sitting in your gazebo,repparttar 113465 soft water of a gently-running fountain soothing your senses. You rise from your garden bench, and slowly wander over your little wooden bridge that crossesrepparttar 113466 babbling brook flowing through your garden. You stop here and there to admirerepparttar 113467 roses climbingrepparttar 113468 trellis, or smellrepparttar 113469 carnations crawling uprepparttar 113470 gazebo walls, perhaps picking one to take inside and put in a glass on your living-room table.



Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use